The Story of a Minifigure: The Great Battle

### Prologue

Billy Vardon was running; and he was running for his life. He was in a part of the Perith City, a very infamous city. Any kind of criminal could be found there and the world of this town was the centre of the Nimbus System's underworld. That exactly was the reason why a big group of Electro-Sword Stromlings, α new kind of Stromlings that had appeared one or two years ago, was now in the City chasing Billy Vardon. Those Stromlings looked like the usual kind, but instead of the blade-arm, they had a sword which was being seeped by Maelstrom Electricity. Sometimes electricity seeped through the rest of their body, too.

Billy Vardon did not know why, but those Darklings were only chasing him. They did not care about no one else or create chaos. They just chased him.

They were in a quite big avenue, one of the few the city had. He suddenly bumped onto another minifigure thαt had not noticed what was happening. Then, Billy Vardon smashed and never rebuilt again. Yet, the other minifigure who should now be very surprised and shocked started running like Billy was doing before. All that was because Billy still existed; however, his soul and spirit were now at the body of the other minifigure.

Billy believed that by changing bodies, which was an ability he had discovered he had, the Stromlings would get confused. Yet, the Stromlings did not get confused at all. It was as if they expected that.

Billy kept running, but he finally reached a dead end. He turned around and realized that he was doomed. There was no escape. The Stromlings were now approaching him slowly.

“Please, show some mercy!” Billy begged that being his last hope.

One of the Maelstrom Beings stepped forward and opened its mouth. However, the voice was by no means his -even if he could talk. The voice was a terrible voice that had not been heard for six months; a voice that many people thought would never be heard again; a voice of chaos. And the Darkitect spoke:

“Chaos is merciless, Billy! You should know that! I'm sorry for that, but I need your power! Wait! I actually am not sorry! Goodbye!!!”

Then, it seemed as if the Stromling smiled and it raised its sword-arm. The sword-arm moved very quickly and Billy closed his eyes. He then felt the pain of infection...

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Strange Odd Shadow was running; and he was running for his life. He looked back. The huge crowd of Stromlings, Dark Spiderlings, Maelstrom Scorpions, Snakes, Dragons and other Darklings was still close.

Six months had passed since the Incident at the Maelstrom Lair. Now, Shadow was at the Deadly Desert again with a Maelstrom Mob chasing him. Yet, this time he was alone.

The young minifigure was wearing some special gear for Deadly Desert. It had the colours of the sand, so that he could camouflage. His hat had the same shape with a Rank 1 Adventurer Hat, but it had the same colour with the rest of his clothes.

Shadow was afraid. He would soon get too tired to run and the Maelstrom would catch him. The idea of him being smashed was terrible, but the idea of being infected and serving the Maelstrom was worse.

Yet, Shadow stopped running before he had got tired. He was in front of a cliff. He had ended up on a protrusion of the ground. He turned around and saw the Maelstrom still coming. He then got ready to jump, whatever the consequences when he realized he could not move his feet. He was stuck in quick sand.

“Oh, brick!” he exclaimed and tried to get out, before he remembered he shouldn't do that.

By that time his whole legs were in the sand and the Maelstrom was coming.

“Brick it! If I go down at least, I'll let my friends know!” he said to himself.

He dipped his hand into the sand and managed to get it out. He was holding his Rank 2 Engineer-like Helm that contained an F-phone. It had been recently damaged and Shadow had not much time to work on it, so he hoped it would work.

The young man raised his hand, because he was sagging quickly and soon only his shoulders, head and the arm with the Helm were out. Then, he pressed two little buttons on the Helmet and it sent a signal for a second before it stopped working; and before Shadow's head sagged into the sand...

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

An F-Phone at the bedside table of a man wearing blue clothes in a sanatorium.

An F-Phone of a girl wearing white scientist robes over her red clothes in her dark lab.

An F-Phone of a green-clothed girl in a spaceship.

An F-Phone of a Bat Lord in the same spaceship.

An F-Phone in the backpack of a Vampire in a jungle.

An F-Phone of an Assembly Engineer in his Nimbus Isle property.

The F-Phones of two Sentinel Knights on a wall of a castle.

An F-Phone of Rider in bright silver panoply fighting some Maelstrom Knights.

An F-Phone of an Assembly Summoner in Nimbus Plaza.

An F-Phone in the space among several chunks of rock next to the half-scorched part of a white mask.

They all received a signal from Shadow; a SOS Emergency. . .

### Chapter 1: In the Traverser

“Captain! Did you receive the same signal?!” Glittery Honoured Seahorse, a Bat Lord, asked.

“Yes, Glittery I did, but I've told you before: Just call me Kate or Katie!” Katie Pirate, the Venture League girl replied.

Kate was not wearing any of the usual Venture League Gear. Although it was green, the colour of the Venture League the clothes were different and the weapons were a pirate pistol and a flamethrower.

Kate was the captain of the FFFFF Traverser. The FFFFF Traverser was a spaceship that Katie and her husband, Strange Odd Shadow had built. It generally had a triangular shape, but in fact was made of some different “levels”, in a way similar to the pyramid's one. The crew wasn't very big. It was Kate, Glittery and three or four of the latest members of the team. The starship was the only one of the FFFFF Team, a team that Shadow had founded with her and two friends of theirs, Magical Fire Monkey and Sarah Darkon. The team had not a particular aim. They were just a team of friends that wanted to fight the Maelstrom together.

The Maelstrom was an evil force of chaos that destroyed and corrupted. It could infect someone or something and use them for its own purposes. It had been created when the Imagination Nexus, the last source of Pure Imagination had been corrupted. The Darkitect, the ultimate Maelstrom Being, was considered to be the leader of the Maelstrom. However, his body had been smashed six months ago by Shadow. Despite that his consciousness and spirit were still alive.

The Nexus Force was a force that was fighting the Maelstrom to save the Universe and the Last Shard of the Imagination Nexus, which had not been infected and was being protected in the Nexus Tower. That shard was the main source of the Nexus Force's power since it used Imagination to build and fight.

The Nexus Force had four factions and one leader for each. The factions were the Sentinels, the Assembly, the Venture League and the Paradox. Each faction had different characteristics and different gear. The Venture League, Katie's faction, consisted of explorers and adventurers. Shadow was Assembly, who are the builders and thinkers of the Nexus Force. The Sentinels, to whom Magical belonged, were the best fighters of the Force. Sarah Darkon was Paradox, which is the faction that studies the Maelstrom and uses its power against it.

“Should we leave to search for Shadow?” Glittery inquired.

“Not yet! We haven't completed our mission! We're almost done, so I don't think there will be a problem!” said Kate calmly.

However, behind her calm words a very anxious Katie was hidden.

*What could have happened to Shadow? He hasn't sent a SOS Emergency before! What could have made him do that now? s*he was thinking.

She looked at her F-Phone. Although it seemed that Shadow's one was not working anymore, the last place where it had been before it broke down had been recorded.

*Somewhere at the Deadly Desert! Why would he be there?*

“Anyway! Our studies have shown that this world is not from the Cruxian Sea, but from the Batheia Sea! Now the only thing left to do is to see if there is life in it. We'll send a droid for that purpose!” she said.

The world above which they were flying was a water-world, that being a world which was wholly covered by water. Worlds were called the chunks of the cube-shaped Planet Crux, where the Nexus was located. Such water-worlds usually were parts of the Cruxian Sea, a side of Crux that was almost completely covered by water.

“We'll send the droid immediately, Captain!” one of the other crew members exclaimed.

The droid was sent quickly and it did not take much time for it to return. The results said that there were both plants and animals in there.

“Great! I'm glad we don't have to determine what the species of life are! Let's head for Nexus Tower now!”

“Nexus Tower?! I thought that Shadow was at the Desert!” Glittery was surprised.

“We know where Shadow is and we can locate him again if he leaves that place! What we need now is info about what happened! Now, computer! Set Nexus Tower as our destination. Use maximum speed possible!”. . .

### Chapter 2: In Nexus Tower

Magical Fire Monkey burst into the dark paradox lab. Many experiments were going on there. Magical saw many glass-surrounded tables that contained several plants, some of which were infected.

“Ya! What are ya doing in my lab?!” Sarah asked not being happy about Magical coming in her lab.

“I've come to see your experiments! They are interesting” Magical lied.

“Don't lie to me! They are interesting, but ya wouldn't be interested in them. And surely not in *my* experiments! What do ya want?!” she said unhappily.

“I received a SOS Emergency Signal from Shadow about half an hour ago! I just now managed to get out of the sanatorium. Did you receive it, too?!” Magical told her anxiously.

“Yes, I did! Katie did so, too! She called me and said that she would investigate it with the rest of the Traverser Crew!”

“Aha! So, we can just stay here and wait!” Magical said “She could have called me, too!” He was obviously a bit upset that Katie had called Sarah and not him.

“Why would she call someone so worthless?” Sarah replied malevolently.

“Then, why did she call y-” Magical exclaimed angrily, but he stopped.

He grabbed his head and grimaced.

“What happened? Did your non-existent brain finally explode?!” Sarah mocked him.

“No!” Magical managed to say “It's a... pain... on the head!”

“That's what happens when ya leave the sanatorium prematurely!”

“No! It's not that! I have not been hit... on the head! I think it's a... Superianic side-effect!”

Superians were people with special abilities. Magical had the ability to foresee the future; or actually he could see what happened in the present and what that would surely cause in the close future. Sarah, Katie and Shadow were superians, too. Sarah was a telepathic, Katie could locate most things wherever they were and Shadow could camouflage when he was in the shade.

“I think... I'll leave now!” Magical said.

“Good riddance!”

Magical walked slowly, still holding his head, and reached the door. Yet, it opened before Magical did anything. Kate had opened it.

“Hello Mag! They told me I would find you here! I have to ask you something!”

Feeling the pain fading Magical said: “Ask!”

“After our wedding Shadow left for the Venture Explorer. You and Dragon went there a little about a week after him. Could you tell me what happened?”

“Well, at some point Shadow was hit badly and they sent him to the Nexus Hospital and Sanatorium. That was three weeks ago! One week ago I was hit and sent there, too. However, I did not find him! He had already left! That's all I know! But maybe you could ask Dr. Salliver about him! He was Shadow's Healer and Disinfecter!”

“Thanks Magical! I'll leave now!” Kate said and started running toward the elevator.

Katie ascended to the first level of the Hospital and Sanatorium. She ran the whole corridor stopping in front of the last but one door. It had a sign saying *Dr. Salliver* on it. She knocked on it.

“Come in!” Salliver said from inside.

Katie opened the door and got inside. She found herself in a small office full of bookcases, which were full of books. Behind his full-of-books-and-papers desk, Dr. Salliver was reading a report about some patient.

“Hello Doctor! I am Katie Pirate! I would like to ask you about Strange Odd Shadow!”

“Go on!” the man said without even looking at her.

“When did he leave the Hospital and do you know where did he go?”

“He left ten days ago, although he was supposed to stay two more days! He said he wanted to contact Harold Ventrum about a mission. I let him go, because there was no actual reason for him to stay. For more information you should ask that Ventrum guy! I think he can be found in the Venture League area!”

“Thank you very much!!!”

Five minutes later, Katie was at the Venture League Area in front of a Venture League Adventurer.

“Are you Harold Ventrum?” Katie asked.

“Indeed I am! But who are you?”

“I am Katie Pirate and I would like to ask you about Strange Odd Shadow!”

“That annoying minifig! Curse him! He destroyed my mission!”

“Why? What did he do?!”

“Well, after three months of preparation, we were ready to start the mission of mapping Deadly Desert. We would send a team of five minifigs with some special gear. We started searching for people to volunteer. That's where Strange Odd Shadow comes in the story! He appeared and told me that I am crazy for preparing such a mission; he said that no team would manage to survive there long enough to map the whole world; he said that it's one of the most dangerous places in the Crux System! But the mapping needs to be done, so I did not change my mind. In the end, he said that if he couldn't stop me, he would guarantee that less people would get smashed. That's why he volunteered to help. I accepted, because I thought that someone with experience on the world would be needed. However, the next day I found out that all the gear -which by the way needs three months to be made- had been stolen and Strange Odd Shadow was nowhere to be found. He had left for Deadly Desert on his own not letting anyone else come! If you ever see him, curse him for me!” Ventrum explained and left.

“So, I think it's time I head for the Desert!”. . .

### Chapter 3: Concerning predictions

“Hello Sir! It is an honour to meet you!” Magical said.

“Yeah, yeah! We've heard that! Every time a new Sentinel meets me I hear the same words!!! It was fun ten years ago, but now it's just cliché! Just get on with this! What do you want?!” answered a bored Duke Exeter, the leader of the Sentinels.

“I am Magical Fire Monkey, sir, and I am a Superian. Superians are people with special abilities! My own ability is, more or less, to foresee events of the close futur-” Magical said, but was interrupted.

“What stupid things are you saying?! There is no such thing as Superians or special abilities! And certainly no one can foresee the future! Now leave and stop concerning me with ridiculous ideas!” Exeter answered.

“No, wait! Ask Dr. Overbuild! He'll tell you that it's true! Please, do that! What do you have to lose?” Magical told the leader.

“My time, but it seems that I'll lose more of my time if I don't do as you want. Let's go to Overbuild's office”

“Albert! That minifig is ridiculously claiming that he can see the future. Please tell him to leave me alone!” the Duke said to Dr. Overbuild, the leader of the Assembly, a little later.

“Arthur, you should listen to Magical! His predictions always become true! He's a Superian!” Overbuild answered.

“What?! Those Superians are real?! Then, what would you want from me?” Exeter said surprised.

“Sir, about a quarter ago, I had a sight of the present and the future's happenings! In the start I saw many Maelstrom Beings of all kinds -even kinds we don't know- gathering at a place that seemed to be the Maelstrom Lair. I think that's the present. Then, I saw huge armies of Maelstrom gathering at what seemed to be the valley of the Castle Kingdom. Lastly, I saw the Central Castle of Castle Kingdom being surrounded by an army of Maelstrom so big that has never been seen before. If you ask me, the Maelstrom will attack there with all its forces, not a little Stromling less!” Magical recounted.

Castle Kingdom was a very dangerous medieval-style world whose existence only few Nexus-Forcers knew.

“That is terrible! We'll send all the Castle Kingdom fighters immediately!” Exeter exclaimed.

“You'll need something more than that Arthur!” Overbuild said.

“What do you mean?!”

“Recently, all the other Castles that we had there were conquered by the Maelstrom. If this one is conquered, the whole valley of the Castle Kingdom will be at the hands of chaos. Paradox studies have shown that in a fully infected place a Maelstrom Being can double every 18 minutes. If the Castle Kingdom is fully infected, there will be such a big fully infected place that the whole Maelstrom army will double every 18 minutes! If they conquer the castle, we are doomed! Add to that the fact that in a few days the Maelstrom Comet will enter the Crux System and strengthen the Maelstrom Beings! To win this battle and the war, we need the whole Nexus Force!” Overbuild explained.

“What's the Maelstrom Comet?” Magical asked.

“It's a comet that happened to pass over Crux the night that the Nexus was corrupted. It passed through the corrupted Nexus during the few minutes that it was not contained, being infected! It had not returned in the Crux System all those years and was quite far away. My calculations said that the comet would need at least fifty more years to come, but being infected its orbit is being changed frequently. It travels chaotically, so it comes sooner!”

“We're bricked!” Magical exclaimed.

“Not necessarily! We shall fight till the end!” Exeter said “We may have to fight with the odds, but we will fight! Albert, call a council of the leaders! No! A council of the Nexus Order. I'll communicate with the Castle Kingdom fighters, so that they head for the Castle World immediately. We need soldiers there until we inform the rest of the Nexus Force about Castle Kingdom. Magical Fire Monkey, you are dismissed!”

With that both leaders left running. Magical stayed there, because that particular moment he felt that headache again. At the same time, his sight blurred and he saw with his mind, some pictures of the future. Fire on the ground and on the sky, smashed rocks everywhere, walls collapsing, minifigures smashing...

Whatever the results of this battle, it seemed that it would be the greatest battle of that war. . .

### Chapter 4: To the Rescue

“Let's take off!” Katie said as she got into the spaceship.

“Eh! Captain, we need new Imagination Crystals!” said Super Fission Brick, their Assembly Engineer-Inventor.

“Well, find some and install them to the engine!” Katie responded.

“I've already found some and I'm in the process of changing the old ones, but I'm just informing you that we will need at least half an hour before we can take off!” Brick told her.

“Why should this happen now?!” asked Kate rhetorically.

Half an hour later Brick was almost done with the engine crystals, when the alarm of Nexus Tower turned on and almost deafened them.

“I'll see what is happening out there!” Katie said and got out.

Red lights were turning on and off perpetually, as a part of the alarm. Some screens on the walls that usually showed advertisements about new products, now had the word *EMERGENCY* on them. Suddenly, the voice of Dr. Overbuild was heard.

“All the Nexus Force Troopers are ordered to come to Level 150 of Nexus Tower, wherever you are, whatever you are doing. A meeting of the whole Nexus Force is going to take place in one hour. A great Emergency case has arisen. The future of the Nexus Force and of the Universe depends on our actions! No trooper shall be excluded, unless they are informed so!”

That message was heard throughout all the worlds where Nexus Force was present. This was an event that had never occurred before. Thousands of minifigures arrived in Nexus Tower for that emergency and the crowded Nexus Tower became more crowded than ever. The people that wanted to use the launch pads were so many that they had to change the coordinates of all the launch pads for minifigures to head for Nexus Tower from everywhere. A traffic jam of rockets and spaceships was created around the Nexus Tower and in front of all the hangars.

However, before all that started happening, Katie was already preparing the Traverser for a flight.

“But what about Overbuild's orders?!” Ultra Curious Warrior, a Sentinel of theirs asked.

“I don't care about Overbuild's orders! Our leader is in danger!” Kate said and kept pressing buttons and pulling levers.

“Kate! We're being hailed!” said Glittery.

A screen turned on and in it a female minifigure appeared.

“Captain of the FFFFF Traverser, I am Heliana Xuser. Did you ask permission to take off?” she said a bit surprised.

“I'm not asking your permission. I'm informing you that we will take off, so that you can open the gates of the hangar!” Kate replied.

“Unfortunately, this cannot be done! I believe you are aware of the situation and the call of Dr. Overbuild, aren't you? I have not been informed that you and your crew are excluded from it!”

“Indeed I am aware of it! Yet, Strange Odd Shadow has gone missing and I'm going to save him! I assure you that whatever is happening it will be better if Shadow is with us and not missing. Thus, if you do not open the gates yourself, I'll blow them up!”

“Okay, okay! I'll open them! Just don't do anything hasty!”

After that, there were no other problems stopping them from taking off, although they had to manoeuvre to avoid being hit by the several rockets that were already arriving. A strange sight was to see the spaceships that were always orbiting around the Tower landing for any crew possible to disembark. Yet, they did not stop to see what would happen. They used the spaceship's maximum speed as soon as possible.

With that speed they would reach Deadly Desert in almost an hour. During that time, Kate's F-Phone started ringing.

“Hello, Magical! What happened?!” she said when she picked it up.

“I am at the Nexus Meeting, but I can't seem to find you! Where are you?!” Magical told her.

“I am going to save Shadow!” the girl replied.

“I was afraid you'd say that! The situation here is pretty bad! I predicted about an hour ago that the central Castle of Castle Kingdom will be attacked by what seems to be the whole army of the Maelstrom! They're going to tell everyone about the world, so that they can fight together! By the way you can't imagine how big this place is. It actually is all the levels between 150 and 200 and maybe even more” the young man said.

“Well, then I am doing the best thing I could do! I'm bringing Shadow back, so that he can fight, too! We'll have many more odds to win with him!”

“You're right! Keep doing what you're doing! I have to go now! Goodbye and good luck!”

After that they continued until the desert-world was visible.

“We will enter its atmosphere in minutes!” Brick announced.

“Maybe you should locate Shadow before first, so that we know where we should land!” Glittery proposed.

“Good idea!” Kate said.

She then started using her ability. Her green eyes started glowing, but things around her or she did not start floating, unlike situations in the past. She had mastered her ability and could control the “Zero-Gravity Effect” or “Side Effect” as Shadow called it. After a little her eyes stopped shining.

“I can't find him! It's like something is blocking me! I was able to locate things at other places, but I could not find anything that is at Deadly Desert! Let's just land at the last place where Shadow was”. . .

### Chapter 5: The Nexus Meeting

“Hello Magical! How are you?” Quantum Solar Asteroid, an Assembly Engineer of the FFFFF Team and good friend of theirs, greeted Magical as soon as he noticed him in the crowd.

“I'm fine! What about you?” Magical replied.

“I'm well, too! Should we go to a balcony? The meeting is starting in ten minutes and I would like to be on one of them when it starts!” Quantum suggested.

“Okay! Although I'm not very sure whether we'll reach the elevators soon enough!” Magical commented looking at the crowd.

After great tries they managed to get into an overcrowded elevator five minutes later. Magical and Quantum let all the other people get out first and in the end they were the last ones together with an Exploreien Bot. They stopped at the 194th level at the 67th balcony. There were also a Venture League Girl, a Mosaic Jester and a Paradox girl there.

“That can't be happening!” Magical suddenly exclaimed and everyone turned around to look at him “From all the places you could be, should you be at the same one with me!!!” he was looking at the Paradox girl, who was no other than Sarah.

“As if I am pleased by it!” Sarah commented irritated.

“Do you guys know each other?” the Bot asked.

“Yes, we do, even though I wish the answer was the opposite!” Magical said “Come on, Quantum! Let's go to another balcony!”

However, at that exact moment the voice of Overbuild was heard throughout the whole place.

“Nexus-Forcers; ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the first Nexus Meeting. We have called you all here today for a great danger is approaching!”

“Too late!” Quantum whispered with a smile and sat on a chair next to the Bot.

Magical mumbled something and sat between Quantum and the Venture League Girl.

“By the way I am Expie Botie!” said the Bot, who seemed willing to make new acquaintances even in those dark moments.

“Quantum Solar Asteroid!”

“Magical Fire Monkey”

“Nirwell Jane Lane! I really wonder what's that danger of which Dr. Overbuild is speaking!” said the Venture League Girl.

Overbuild had not said anything else, because he was waiting for people to stop talking. He, Duke Exeter, Hael Storm and Vanda Darkflame, leaders of the Venture League and the Paradox respectively, were all on a platform floating in the middle of the auditorium and orbiting around the beam of Imagination coming from the Last Shard of the Nexus. There was also another person on the flying platform: Panagis “McInterest”. He was President of the Castle Kingdom Council. There were hovering screens and loudspeakers at several heights around the beam of Imagination, so that everybody could hear and see the four leaders and the commander.

“Are you by any chance related to Sky Lane?” asked Magical curiously.

“She's my aunt!” said the girl cheerfully.

Expie was more curious about her odd name. Yet, before they could say much about it, Overbuild lost his patience and said: “Could you please stop talking!”.

Almost instantly all the talking stopped. He was a much respected man.

“Thank you! Now, let me explain some things before I tell you about the danger!” Overbuild started and then talked to them about Castle Kingdom.

As soon as he had finished talking about that subject, many angry minifigures started shouting. The Mosaic Jester that was sitting in front of them cried: “THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!”.

“That must be the place where Platinum and Glittery are going when they disappear and then do not talk to me about it!” Quantum exclaimed.

“It's a pity I did not discover it! I once even found the pieces of the First Builders' Temple, although I could not find it a second time. Unless those ruins I saw were it, but what could have destroyed it!” Nirwell talked.

“You don't seem surprised!” Expie told Magical.

Sarah, who had not talked since Overbuild first spoke, turned around her head to see what Magical would say.

“The truth is... that Shadow, Sarah, Katie and I already know! We discovered Castle Kingdom by accident seven or eight months ago! Yet, just like Glittery and Platinum we vowed not to tell anyone!”

“I can't believe this!” Quantum said and looked at Sarah who nodded confirming what Magical had said.

“Who are Shadow, Sarah and Katie?” Nirwell asked.

“They're friends of mine! At least Shadow and Katie! Sarah” he said and pointed to the girl on the front “is just friend of my friends!”

They would have talked more, but after that Overbuild asked for silence again. This time it took longer for everyone to stop, but eventually they did. Then, Dr. Overbuild told them of all that had been discussed when Magical had told Exeter of his prediction. The only thing that wasn't told was the part about Magical and his prediction.

“...This is Mr. Panagis! You may know him! He's President of the Castle Kingdom Council. He will explain everyone what they will do! Listen carefully!” Overbuild finally finished.

“Did you have anything to do with this?” Quantum, who had learnt of everyone's powers, asked.

“A little bit!” Magical replied.

“Listen now!” Panagis said, because many people were talking again “Listen, because I won't tell you twice!”. . .

### Chapter 6: Captain Brickbeard

*A half-infected minifigure gets smashed by an arrow in his old home... An explosion in the Paradox Lab of Avant Gardens... A little child watches his sister get smashed... A dragon ascending from his hole... A minifigure being smashed by a Stromling Ape in Gnarled Forest...*

Shadow woke up. After he had fought the Darkitect he kept having nightmares. He still remembered many of the pictures he had seen during the Pain Hit, as he called it. They were haunting in his dreams although slowly the ones that he or his friends had not lived were fading. Nonetheless all that pain was not letting him find peace.

He quickly sat up and looked around, while he remembered what had happened. There was a weak light blue light in the middle of the room where he was, but the rest of the room was dark.

“Good morning! Or actually good evening! Welcome to Captain Brickbeard's humble home!” someone in the dark said.

Shadow could only make out the man's figure.

“Who are you?!” Shadow asked trying to understand what had happened after he had passed out in the quick sand.

“I am Captain Brickbeard! I thought that it was obvious since this is Captain Brickbeard's humble home! You are lucky that I was at the Quick sand Room when your foot appeared on the ceiling. Otherwise you would have smashed due to lack of oxygen before I could drag you out of the quick sand!”

“You mean...” Shadow started saying.

“Yes, the Quick Sand leads to my underground home; if you survive of course. We're in a different room of course! Otherwise sand would be falling on our heads right now! My home is actually a system of underground tunnels. I discovered it when I got stuck in that Quick Sand. I was trying to escape so much that I got out from the down side before I could smash. Ever since I've been trying to survive here! How did you get here?”

“Well, the Nexus Force discovered this place officially some months ago. I was sent here in a mapping mission. I actually tried to stop it, but failing I decided to help them, so that the people that would also join would not get smashed. In the end I stole all the special gear that they had prepared and departed on my own, so that no one else would get smashed. It seems I did the right thing, because what brought me here was a huge crowd of Maelstrom” Shadow explained.

“Bizarre! I got stuck in the Quick Sand, because I was being chased by Maelstrom Mob, too! What did cause the Maelstrom Crowd to chase you?” Brickbeard said seeming worried.

“This!” Shadow replied and got something from his backpack.

It was a Shard of Imagination; and actually it was a Shard of Imagination Nexus. No other kind of Imagination Shard could have existed during that time anyway.

“HIDE THIS! HIDE IT, YOU STUPID BOY!!!” Brickbeard shouted as soon as he saw it.

Shadow put it back in his backpack.

“These awful creatures of hell can sense Imagination. Such a great concentration and source of Imagination will expose us! At least have it out of light, so that it is not active that making it less traceable. I found this too many years ago and the Mob chased me. I hid the shard in the sand, so that they wouldn't find it and not find me. Yet, you'll destroy us now! The Darklings will already know that we are somewhere around here, but now they'll sense us better!”

“You seem to know much about Imagination! Were you a part of Nexus Force?” Shadow asked.

“Yes, indeed! I was actually a good friend of Hael Storm. Is he and the other leaders still the leaders of the Nexus Force?” answered Brickbeard.

“Yes, they are! How did you end up here?”

“Oh, it was during the first years of the War. I had two great friends, my best friends. Each one of us had a different age, but that didn't trouble us. Then, suddenly a terrible event made one of those friends of mine leave Nexus Force. I decided that I would find him and try to talk him out of it. Yet, I found a minifigure doing something to my rocket when I went to the launch pad. He left, but when I set off the rocket finally took me here and then crushed. You know the rest of the story!”

“How did that minifigure look like?”

“Well, he wore black robes, a black hood and had this creepy white smiling mask! He gave me the creeps”

“Four-faced guy!” Shadow exclaimed “The same person made my friends and me crush here some months ago. That's how we discovered Deadly Desert! But don't worry I sent an emergency signal to my friends and they'll come to save us!”

Suddenly, a most unexpected thing happened. Shadow's stomach gurgled. Brickbeard laughed.

“Yeah! You must be hungry! Let me find some food! I usually just feed from some cactuses that are near to one entrance of the system. Yet, I think I have some Scorpion meat left from the last time I caught one of those evil brutes. Don't worry! It's not infected!”

“Wait! I still have my food, in my backpack! There's not much left, but we could eat the tasty food first and then see if we're hungry enough for cactus and scorpion!” Shadow suggested.

Brickbeard laughed again.

“That's actually a good idea! Let's go to the kitchen!”

The man walked and Shadow, after standing up, followed him. Brickbeard took the light with him and revealed an opening at the rocky wall. They followed it and ended up at a small almost circular hall which had 3 “doors” leading to other rooms. They got in the third room.

There Brickbeard turned on one more light and the combination of the two made it easy for Shadow to make out Brickbeard's characteristics. He had black hair and a start of a beard, which he had probably preserved all the years he had lived in Deadly Desert. His left eye was covered by an eye patch. His left leg was a wooden leg and it seemed as if the man had no hands. He had a captain's pirate hat with a skull and a blue and white shirt with a little black and golden. His pants were black and red.

The room, which was supposed to be the kitchen, was an oblong small room. In the middle there was a thing that seemed like a naturally-made table. At the sides there were big barrels that were probably used for storing food and water. Around the table there were small barrels, which Brickbeard used for seats.

“Let's eat!” Brickbeard said and he smiled letting Shadow see his yellow teeth. . .

### Chapter 7: Searching

“Hmm!” Kate said thinking “There’s quick sand here! Do you think he dipped inside it?”

“Most probably!” Glittery, who was looking around with some binoculars, replied and Katie grimaced.

“That sand will probably go somewhere. I want to see what place that is and whether Shadow is there!” Kate said and took a Hover-Camera II from her backpack.

The H-CII was a small hovering exploration droid that had a camera to record and transmit what it sees. Katie threw it onto the quick sand and it dipped into it.

“It will soon show us what happens inside! Meanwhile, maybe we could search around for something else!” Kate said “To the spaceship”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

*Shadow jumping through a window… A man getting smashed by his own wife, who was now infected… The Darkitect grabbing Shadow’s neck at Deadly Desert… A Spider Queen destroying a house… A dragon eating Shadow’s shield and his hand with it…*

Shadow woke up in the same room he had woken up the previous day. Several hours had passed since Shadow had eaten and now he was hungry again. Brickbeard was sitting on a chair and carved a wooden stick that Shadow had no idea where he had got. Without stopping to look at Shadow, Brickbeard said “You were talking in your sleep!”

“Really?!” Shadow responded “And what was I saying?”

“Mostly ‘No’, but sometimes you also said ‘The pain is unbearable!’” Brickbeard said. Then, silence was spread in the half-lighted room until Brickbeard suddenly exclaimed “Brrrick it! All those yearrrs of being alone having no one to talk made me forrrget to use my pirrrate accent. Arrrgh! That’s terrrible! Arrrgh!”

That really surprised Shadow and he did not know what to say. Fortunately, Brickbeard did not continue that conversation: “Arrre you hungrrry?”

“A bit!” Shadow answered.

“I thought you would be! We arrre rrrunning low on supplies, so we’ll have to go out to find some food! Arrrgh!” the pirate said.

“Okay!”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The FFFFF Traverser was flying above the endless desert. They were not above an area full of dunes. Glittery and Brick were flying the vessel, while Katie was looking at some screens which were showing what happened below them. The others were not at the bridge.

“Stop!” suddenly Katie said.

“What?!” Glittery wondered.

“Stop! I saw something back there at that dune!”

“Do you want us to go back at the dune?” Brick asked.

“No, I want you to land here, so I can check the other dunes, too!” Katie said a tad irritated.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Shadow and Brickbeard entered the secret labyrinth of tunnels through the thin entrance they had used before to get out. Shadow had a cut on his arm and Brickbeard was bleeding on the forehead. A short pirate blade was formed at the end of his right arm and a hook at the other. Brickbeard had explained Shadow that his friends had helped him make this. Many metal micro-bricks had been placed there and Brickbeard could use his Imagination to make them form in anything he wanted, provided it was small enough since the bricks weren’t endless. The first time Shadow had seen that in use was when the micro-bricks formed into a fork.

The try of the minifigures to find food was at vain. Two Maelstrom Scorpions had found them and the two men had smashed them. Yet, there was a big group of Scorpions near them that they could not fight, so they decided to return.

Now, they were walking in one of the dark tunnels heading to the room where Shadow had slept the other times. Then, suddenly Brickbeard stopped and started sniffing loudly.

“Well well well! Look who’s here?” a voice said. . .

### Chapter 8: Preparing for Battle

Magical was in his rocket flying towards Castle Kingdom. Many other rockets were around him. Most people from the balcony were among them, too –either by chance or because they wanted to do so. Only Sarah had waited until Magical had left to take off and then she used a different route.

Now they were flying among several spaceships, smaller or bigger, which floated above and around Castle Kingdom. Magical finally maneuvered to avoid a quite big starship and then saw the world. It was dark, because it was night and the spaceships covered a big part of the sky. However, Magical noticed that there was an unusual slight purple shining in most of the part that was surrounded by the Sorcerers’ Woods. Only in the centre the glowing was missing. There instead there were many lights, more intense than the purple shining, many of which were Imagination Blue.

Soon Magical and the others landed at the tall tower in the centre of the Ferrum Castle, as the Central Castle was called. Magical looked through one of the many windows that were used for the rockets to get inside the tower. He could see the whole town lying around the Castle. There was a big round Wall protecting the town and some walls connecting the Castle and the Wall split the town in four parts. In the past six months however a second outer Wall had been built and many new buildings now lay between the two Walls. The first Wall had eight towers while the second had the double. There was no Maelstrom besieging the castle as usually.

Magical and the others descended the tower and then split up.

“You’d better stay at the inner parts of the castle!” Magical said to Quantum “The fight will probably be very intense at the front lines and an Assembly like you might be in danger there!”

“Okay!” Quantum agreed, although there was some disappointment and little irritation in his voice when he said that.

“I’ll be at the Outer Wall!” Magical finally said and left.

On his way there, Magical saw many vendors giving their best gear for free. He saw other vendors storing bricks and models at several places, so that they could be used easily during the battle. He saw Assembly Members working on several things and Paradox testing their gear. He saw Venture League Members exploring the castle and he saw Sentinels and Nexus Knights preparing for the battle. Finally, he saw some Iron Riders heading for the Outer Wall, too. Finally, he reached the stairway, ascended on the wall and there he found Magical Heroic Dragon.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Long ago a King of the Ferrum Kingdom had built many Watchtowers around Ferrum Castle, so that they could be informed when enemies were coming. One of those Watchtowers had been built at the end of two mountain ranges. Between them there was a strait valley through which enemies could reach very close to Ferrum Castle without being seen. That’s why the Watchtower was there.

Now, Nuncius, a Nexus Knight, and some others had been put at that Watchtower waiting for the Maelstrom to come, so that they could tell the others. The plan was to use a carrier pigeon, because that would reach the town much faster. Nuncius himself was frightened of the moment that the Maelstrom would come. Panagis had even told them that this mission would most probably turn out to be suicidal. Now that fear had spread into his heart, he could not remember why he had volunteered.

And then suddenly the moment they were expecting came.

“MAELSTROM!!!” someone cried and at once a bell started ringing.

However, before Nuncius could realize what was happening, Stromling Knights were everywhere. A loud noise, like an explosion was heard from downstairs. The young man unsheathed his sword and struck some of the Darklings throwing them down. He ran to the stairs and went down to the ground floor.

It was a most terrible sight; the double leaf gate’s leaves fallen on the ground, Stromling Knights and Archers everywhere, the walls scorched, smashed bricks around, the infection spreading around quickly. Nuncius started running as soon as he stepped on the floor. An arrow hit him on the breastplate, but it did not pierce through his armour. Many tried to stop him, but he pushed them down with his sword or shield.

He reached a window opposite to the entrance and jumped through it smashing the glass. Outside he saw some horses running away terrified. He approached one that was not very far away and was not running very quickly and mounted it. As the horse started galloping, he looked behind. The whole tower seemed to be on fire. He had not the courage to look at the army behind the tower. Nuncius was certain that no one had the time to send the pigeon, so it was his responsibility to reach the Castle before the Maelstrom…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Magical was on the Outer Wall watching the valley around. He had this terrible feeling of agony that always came before a battle. Also, a silence was spread all over the town and the valley. Not even an owl was making any sound. Even when someone did something that should make a noise, it didn’t seem to be heard. Even when someone talked it seemed to be very difficult to do so and the words were always whispers.

From time to time, an orange light appeared in the dark even though it seemed to be very far away.

“Those awful creatures are burning the villages!” Dragon had said once he noticed the first lights “Luckily, everyone evacuated them this morning when we learnt of the incoming attack”

Dragon was a good friend of theirs and a member of the FFFFF Team. He was also the Leader of the Iron Riders, the Elite of the Nexus Knights. They all wore panoplies made of Imagination Iron, a rare metal that could not be infected and was difficultly pierced or generally destroyed. There were only about twenty of them.

“I can’t stand this! Even battle feels better than this waiting!” Magical said some time when it was starting to dawn.

The first sunrays appeared coming over the mountains and the sky was slowly painted orange and then turned light blue. It was still, however, somewhat dim when a figure appeared coming from some mountains. When the minifigure was close enough they saw that he was riding a horse and that he was wearing the Ferrum Knight Armour. Suddenly, they also saw two more minifigures approaching from another side. They were both on the same horse.

“Messengers!” Dragon guessed “From the Watchtowers! Things seem to have started badly since they could not send a pigeon as it was planned and since only three returned! Anyway, we have to go now, Magical! Good luck and may Imagination protect you!” he said and then he left with the other Iron Riders following him.

Not much time had passed since that, when another minifigure appeared at the top of a nearby hill. However, that minifigure was not on a horse and it was black and purple: A Stromling. Then, the Stromling started running and thousands of others appeared from behind the hill and followed it. Magical looked around and saw Maelstrom Beings appearing from everywhere creating a giant Maelstrom crowd that surrounded the town. The Battle was starting. . .

### Chapter 9: The Rescue

Shadow looked around, but it was too dark to see who had talked. However, he needn’t see the minifigure’s face to recognise her voice.

“Kate! You’ve come!!! We’re saved!!!” Shadow exclaimed reaching his arms to find her in the dark “Brickbeard! This is one of the friends I talked you about, Katie Pirate!”

“Pirrrate?! Interrresting!” Brickbeard said while turning one of his light blue lamps.

When the light revealed the exact position of its minifigure, Katie jumped on Shadow and kissed him.

“Well, you’rrre cerrrtainly close frrriends! Arrrgh!” Brickbeard commented smiling.

“We’re actually married!” Shadow said also smiling and the happy events from his wedding came back to his mind.

They had actually got married just four weeks ago. Magical and Sarah both said that it was too soon for them to get married and that it would be much more painful if they split up after they had got married.

“It’s the first time we agree! You should listen to us!” Magical had said.

However, both Shadow and Kate had ignored them thinking there was no chance they would ever split up. And finally they got married then, four weeks before those events, even though they were attacked by some Stromling Invaders during the ceremony.

“Don’t ever do this to me again!!!” the girl now said.

“What? Getting lost?” Shadow asked.

“No! Getting lost without me!!!” said Kate and Shadow laughed.

After that Brickbeard and Shadow explained to her Brickbeard’s story and what had happened to Shadow. Then, Kate told them how she had found the entrance searching at the dunes and how the H-CII’s appearance had confirmed that she was at the right place. Afterward she also explained the situation in which Nexus Force was, waiting for that terrible battle to start.

“So, now the only thing we have to do is reach the starship and then we’re saved!” Kate said.

“Yet, we’ll have to be as quick as possible! Arrrgh!” said the pirate “The Maelstrrrom will notice us almost immediately!”

“Okay! We’ll start as soon as possible, but first, Brickbeard, I think you’d like to pack any things you’d want to take with you!” Shadow told them.

“I don’t think so, but I’ll have a look!” the captain answered “Wait forrr me at the entrrrance!”

“Okay!”

Shadow and Kate went at the entrance and a quarter later Brickbeard appeared from the dark. He only had the backpack that he was wearing from the time they got out to find food.

“Let’s go!” he said.

And so they started. They were all running –it was peculiar to see Brickbeard with his wooden leg running– hoping and wishing that the Maelstrom would not notice them. But of course that was not going to happen. They had been running for just half a minute when a Maelstrom Scorpion appeared from the sand under which it was hidden. Brickbeard’s hand instantly formed into a pirate blade with which he attacked the Darkling. At the same time Kate set it on fire with her flamethrower. After that they started running again.

Yet, five more Scorpions appeared from the sand behind them. They had not time to turn and fight them, because Maelstrom Beings of multiple kinds started appearing from the dunes around. They started gathering at one place creating one of the Maelstrom Crowds to which now Shadow had got used to. However, Brickbeard did the strangest thing; he turned around, raised his wooden leg and arms and said: “One of you, grrrab my waist and the otherrr grrrab the firrrst one’s leg!” The others wondered, but they did as he said so.

Then suddenly, they started moving in an incredible speed. Shadow realized that Brickbeard was shooting something from his wooden leg and arms that hit the Darklings and made them move so fast. Additionally, fire was coming from his hat. For a moment Shadow thought that they’d reach the spaceship safely. But...

“They’rrre fasterrr than us!” Captain Brickbeard said “They’ll rrreach us beforrre we rrreach the spaceship!”

“What do we do then?” Kate asked.

“Listen to me: Therrre’s no time for disagrrreeing, so you’ll do as I say!” the pirate told them “When I say now, you’ll let go! Arrrgh! I’ll go to the crrrowd and hold them up!”

“Brickbeard...” Shadow started, but the captain interrupted him: “Don’t disagrrree, Shadow! I have to do it orrr we all will be smashed!”

“Aye aye captain!” Shadow replied with sorrow and bitterness “But before we let go tell me, because I was wondering: Who were your two friends?”

The captain smiled: “Mardolf the Orange and Bob! NOW!!!”

And then Shadow who was grabbing his waist let go of him. The two young minifigures flew for some moments until they landed on the sand. As he stood up, Shadow looked behind. Brickbeard had turned around and was now moving towards the crowd. The Maelstrom Beings, not expecting that let him get inside the mob. They, then, stopped. The captain was now surrounded.

“Shadow, come!” Kate said pulling him.

Shadow started running again. Afterward, a deafening “BAM” was heard. The boy looked back and saw a grey cloud of smoke where the crowd had been until some seconds ago. Yet, not all Maelstrom had been defeated by the explosion.

“Goodbye!” said Shadow and ran even faster than before, so that Brickbeard’s sacrifice would not be vain.

And then all of a sudden they saw the spaceship behind a dune. Shadow and Kate ran as fast as they could, but some Scorpions, Dragons and Spiderlings were now very close.

“Just a little more!” Kate said more to herself than to Shadow.

Now they were only some metres away from the spaceship, but so did the Darklings from them. And when Shadow accepted the fact that the Maelstrom would smash them, some lasers shot by the Traverser hit and smashed many of their chasers. Thinking so much of the spaceship as their destination, Shadow had forgotten that it also was a fighting vehicle that could easily defeat such enemies. Shadow smiled and continued.

“Shadow?! Kate?! What...?” Glittery, who was waiting at the top of the ramp from which they would enter the ship, started saying when she saw them running to be saved by all those Maelstrom Beings.

“INSIDE!” Kate said tersely.

Glittery stood aside to let them pass and then ramp ascended and closed. The spaceship, which was still attacking their former pursuers, took off and left the “cursed world” as it had been called many times.

“Finally, you came! The Nexus Force called me like ten times t...” Glittery said somewhat teasingly, somewhat in an annoyed way, but she stopped when she saw their sad faces “What happened?!”

“A friend just sacrificed himself to save us!” Kate explained.

“He was the First Fallen!” Shadow said as he looked at the Deadly Desert through a window.

And indeed he got later known as Captain Brickbeard, the First Fallen of the Great Battle or just the First Fallen.

And then Shadow told them: “Friends, Fight For the First Fallen”. . .

### Chapter 10: Let the Battle Begin!

The Maelstrom had now surrounded the walls and was coming closer. Many Stromling and Spiderling Kinds were running in the front.

“CATAPULTS!!! READY!!! FIRE!!!” someone shouted and all the close catapults fired boulders that were either on fire or blazed with some sort of Imagination Fire.

“ARCHERS, FIRE AT WILL!!!” another shouted and suddenly hundreds of arrows, which also had normal or Imagination fire on their peaks, flew in the air towards the Stromlings and the Spiderlings.

Suddenly, an explosion occurred smashing many Stromlings and some Spiderlings. Some other followed it.

“They’re stepping on mines!” said a Venture League girl near Magical.

This theory actually seemed to be right. The frequency with which the Darklings got exploded was now very big. Added to that the catapults, the arrows and some cannons that had been put into the wall and launched explosive bombs or laser orbs, the Maelstrom Beings were being smashed very quickly. Soon a mist of smoke was created and covered the whole army. They kept attacking until no explosions were heard anymore and then they waited. With one look around, Magical realised that the same thing was happening all over the valley around the castle.

The mist started slowly to fade and then they started to make out a huge figure. And just seconds before they realized what the creature was, the Spider Boss roared. There was something unnatural in that roar, as if it somehow reached their souls and spread terror in them.

Three boulders, five laser orbs, two explosive bombs and about a hundred arrows hit the brute, but it was unaffected. It started running and stepped on a mine, but still nothing happened even though it seemed as if its skin was fiery. It reached the wall and started firing at it with its guns. It then nailed the wall with one of its legs creating cracks on the wall. However, it did not manage to do any more harm, because someone splashed all over it with some liquid and then threw a torch on it, setting it on fire. The Spider Boss started going back screeching.

However, no matter how many Darklings they had already defeated there were still many of them and while they were concentrated on the Spider Boss, they had come closer. It now was a wave of Stromling Knights, Warlocks and Archers, Dark Knights, Maelstrom Catapults, Siege Towers, Battering Rams and other Siege tools.

“Brick it!” Magical said “They used the first wave of weaker enemies to find out what our first defences were and tαke them down if they could. And they did their work very well!”

Indeed most of the mines had already exploded to defeat simpler enemies and now the rest could go on easily. Of course some occasional mines that had not exploded before did now, but they were few. Now the Maelstrom had almost reached the walls…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dragon and the other Iron Riders were before the gigantic gates. The place shone oddly due to everyone wearing their special armour. Dragon was the last to mount his horse, Ferropede, which was also armoured with panoply made of Figosidir. With a light blue flash the shield that was on his back and the very long spear that was on the wall flew to his hands.

“ANGLE FORMATION!” he shouted and the other riders toed the line behind him “OPEN THE GATES!!!”

The gates opened towards the inside to reveal the little space between those one and some other gates. The Riders prepared for what they would find outside, but before they were ready emotionally the outer gates started opening –towards outside those ones. Afterward they started galloping and the gates closed behind them.

The Riders had formed an angle with Dragon on the front and the eighteen other behind him –nine on the one side and nine on the other. They then entered the Maelstrom. Their long spears smashed all the enemies in front of them. Even if someone tried to attack them from sideways, he was smashed by those who were behind him –only the ones who were at the end of the formation should take more care– while there was no one behind them.

They smashed many as they rode among the Maelstrom leaving only pieces behind them. They soon approached one of the Siege Towers. It was already on fire, but as they passed next to it a boulder hit it on the middle and it started collapsing… towards them!

“TURN TO THE RIGHT!!!” Dragon shouted and he did so with the other following him.

They barely managed to leave without being hit, but in his rush to turn Dragon did not notice a Dark Knight who jumped and cut his spear in the half. As soon as he realized he threw the remaining of his spear and unsheathed his sword.

“We’ve gone too deep! Let’s go back!” he said loudly.

However, before they could implement that plan they collided with a group of Stromling Riders. Many of them managed to pass through them breaking their formation and splitting them. Suddenly, Dragon realized that he and Sir Talmid were alone among some Stromling Riders.

They smashed some of them and started galloping again to get out of the Rider Circle. However, as they rode among several Maelstrom Beings an arrow hit Ferropede at his leg. The horse rose to its two legs, throwing him down and neighed. Then, it started galloping away rampageous. Dragon hoped it wouldn’t be smashed, but he knew that there was no such luck in this or any Universe. Yet, soon he started thinking of his own problems; he was now alone surrounded by many savage Stromling and Dark Knights. . .

### Chapter 11: Space and Ground

Augie Ninewells and Nikolai Gammapulse were aboard one of the spaceships that were hovering above Castle Kingdom. Some minutes ago they had been informed that the battle had started on the ground and some starships had entered the atmosphere of the world to assist in the ground fight. However, they were sure that Maelstrom Spaceships would also attack, so most ships remained there.

Augie and Nikolai had been put into a room that had a big glass for them to see out in the space and some control panels to use some dual turbolaser cannons. They were waiting for the battle to start. Then, suddenly the whole spaceship was shaken and a loud noise was heard, as if they had crashed on something or a bomb had hit them. Seconds after that the whole place got full of lasers, ion blasts, missiles, Starfighters and Weapon-Carrying Rockets. The two minifigures looked around spotted one Maelstrom Starship that had just appeared near them and started firing at it.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dragon fell down. He had been hit for the umpteenth time. He had smashed many of his enemies, but they were many and had managed many blows on him filling him with bruises; his armour at the leg had been split and he had been cut (with some blood wetting the metal).

He stood up before they could hit him again and engaged in a battle with a Dark Knight. However, as he struck against the said Knight, a Stromling Knight hit him on the back, which gave the Dark Knight the chance to hit his shield making it fly out of his hand.

He roared and with one hit smashed two Stromling Knights, one of them being the one that had struck him. He turned to the Dark Knight and their swords collided, causing the Dark Knight’s black sword smash. Dragon grinned and slashed at the Knight smashing him, but then he was hit again this time on the arm. One more stroke on the leg threw him on the ground. The Maelstrom Beings were about to give him the final blow and Dragon could not do anything about that.

However, no one hit him. He looked upwards and saw a tall figure of a weird shape that was shining intensely. It seemed the figure had staved off the Knights, because they were all quite away from them. Yet, Dragon knew they would soon attack again, so he quickly stood up. As he did so, he realised that the figure was Sir Talmid riding his horse.

“Come on!” he said.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Magical was very worried. He had watched the Iron Riders being split by the Maelstrom and he was anxious whether they would survive. He launched some more lasers with his blaster rifles and looked around the Maelstrom to see whether he would find any silver shine.

However, before he managed anything a ladder crashed on the wall right in front of him. He looked around; ladders had been placed at other places, too. Magical did not push the ladder right away, because he wanted to do so when many Darklings would be climbing it, so that they smashed when they fell.

He shot more lasers and looked at the ladder. The Maelstromlings were halfway to the top and were climbing quite fast. Magical decided that it was time to push the ladder, so that he was sure they did not reach the top. And so he did.

Then suddenly, his eyes had a glimpse on a silver shine. Yet, he lost it, as soon as he found it and then his attention was drawn by the tower at his left that had been hit by a flaming boulder and its top was now collapsing.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The shine was indeed one of the Iron Riders; two of them actually: Talmid and Dragon. They were riding towards the gate with their swords raised to smash whoever got in their way.

Now, they were quite near the gate and two Stromling Riders were chasing from their left and right. Dragon hit the one, throwing him from his horse, but when Talmid tried to strike against the other his sword clashed with the Rider’s and it fell from of his hand.

Before Dragon could slash at the Rider, an arrow hit him. Both minifigures looked behind them and saw Sir Formosus and Lady Mirabilia on a horse; Mirabilia still had her arm holding her bow stretched.

Soon they reached the gate, but there was a battering ram in front of it and many Stromlings surrounding it. Mirabilia was again faster than the others launching an arrow which exploded once it touched the battering ram. Now only a few Stromlings were there and most were smashed by Dragon and Formosus or were trampled by the horses. Nothing was between them and the gate now.

“OPEN THE GATES!!! QUICKLY!!!” Talmid shouted and the gates indeed opened up.

Of course they opened so little that a mounted horse could barely get in through them. However, they quickly got in; they were back in safety. Or were they? Dragon and Talmid jumped off their horse and so did Mirabilia. However, Formosus had stayed still. They looked at him and all of a sudden he fell off the horse. It was then that they noticed an arrow that had penetrated his panoply on the back. They ran towards him and saw that his face was pale. Then, he opened his mouth and only one word got out of it: “Poison!”. . .

### Chapter 12: In the two Starships

Shadow got out of a little room in the spaceship. He had gone into it to change clothes not only because the ones he was wearing before were meant to be worn in a desert, but also because they were full of salt after his sweat had evaporated. Now he was wearing his usual orange hem, green shirt, pants and cloak. However, over his shirt he was also wearing a chainmail, even though there was metal armour in the fabric of his shirt and pants, too.

All that armour was made of a metal that was very hard and tough –not as much as Imagination Iron, though– but also very light; its name was Tough Titanium. However, the titanium of the particular chainmail had been mixed with Imagination. Shadow did not know what its properties were, because he had not tested it yet.

As he made for the bridge, he met Katie, who had changed clothes, too.

“Don’t you think you should put any additional panoply?” Shadow asked the girl.

“Oh, I have! I’ve just worn my blouse over it!” Kate said with a smile.

The two minifigures entered the bridge just as an alarm started ringing. They both ran next to Glittery and Brick, who were there.

“What happened?!” they both asked simultaneously.

“Space Maelstrom!” Brick answered, worry looming on his face.

Shadow looked at the front window and saw many small purple jelly-like masses floating in the middle of nowhere.

“Turn around!!! Quickly!!!” Shadow bellowed to no one in particular, while scenes of two of his friends’ rockets being destroyed by Space Maelstrom coming to his mind.

The spaceship obeyed instantly, as if just the thought of what he wanted to happen was enough for the spaceship to get the order. Yet, they had not lost enough of their velocity and as the starship turned around the jelly-likes pieces hit the back of the vessel making whatever they touched melt or blaze, while they got bigger.

“A major thruster has been seriously damaged and so have many minor ones!” a female voice similar to the one of Nexus Naomi “The ship cannot function properly! The thrusters need fixing before you try to move again!”

“Send the SMRs (Space Maelstrom Removers)!” said Shadow, as the voice continued talking about how the damage was getting worse, and he then put his hand on his forehead.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Augie and Nikolai were still shooting lasers from the cannons of Nexus Imaginer, the flagship of the Nexus Force’s Space Fleet; the immense starship had been built by Overbuild himself.

“OH, BRICK!” Augie cried “An ion blast damaged my cannon!” as he said so he rose from his seat, not having to do anything sitting in front of his control panel which could not control anything now.

“Don’t worry! We’ll send a Droid to fix it!” Nikolai said as he succeeded in destroying a Bomber that was flying threateningly close.

Augie looked a bit absentmindedly at the exploding Bomber before he prepared to ask for that. Yet, before he even touched his com link, he ran to Nikolai made him stand up and rushed out of the room, pulling Nikolai with him and shouting: “RUN!!!”

Seconds after they entered the corridor next to that room, the flames of an explosion caused by a missile destroyed the wall behind them.

“Well, that was close!” Nikolai said looking terrified over his shoulder “Good reflexes! Thank you!”

“Let’s get out of here!” looking at the flames, too.

They ran to the end of the corridor got into a small hangar form which rockets and Starfighters still took off. They walked to another door and into another corridor. However, when they were halfway to the end of it some quite big anchors got through the flour, making three holes in it.

“We have to fix that!” Augie told his fellow, suspecting that he could even leave it that way, even if his suspicions were unfounded –Augie had the belief that Sentinels only wanted to smash and never to build or fix– “Shoot the anchors!”

Nikolai hit the anchors with his zipgun lasers and after some blasts they smashed. Augie started mending the first hole with Imagination from afar, while the pressure was making him slide towards the holes. A minute later he proceeded to mend the second hole. However, as Nikolai noticed, Augie was now very close to the holes. He fixed the second hole, but was now in danger of getting out of the spaceship. Yet, Augie did not seem to notice. Then, suddenly he was not standing on the floor and was falling from the hole…

Nikolai, who until then was struggling not to be drawn as well, grabbed Augie’s leg the last second. He drew him to safety, but soon after Augie stood up an explosion towards the start of the corridor making a very big hole.

“Oh, brick!” Augie exclaimed.

“Come! We can’t do anything on our own! We’ll bring help!” bellowed Nikolai pulling Augie from the arm.

Yet, they were being drawn so strongly that they could barely make a step forward. All of a sudden, Augie’s backpack was pushed open by many bricks of multiple colouring that came out of it creating a wall between them and the holes.

“Let’s… go! No… air!” Augie said then gasping for air, since the oxygen levels had been reduced extremely “Besides… won’t… last… the wall!”

The two minifigures strode the rest of the corridor not being able to run. They reached the door, after a nightmarish minute that seemed like a century. They opened it quickly and as they entered the next room they breathed enjoying every molecule of air…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The FFFFF Traverser had, luckily, been fixed quite quickly and was now getting close to Castle Kingdom. Actually, the Space Maelstrom they had met was part of a huge spherical grid around the world and the battle going on around it.

And then they saw the pandemonium of the Space Battle. Countless starships, starfighters, bombers, rockets of both sides flying around shooting everything they had; explosions occurring everywhere; bricks scattered all over the place; flames blazing and going out due to lack of oxygen in space. And now the spaceship was going to get in there. . .

### Chapter 13: Intrusion on the Wall

Things weren’t going very well at the Outer Wall. Magical had thrown many ladders, but even more were always put at the wall. At that moment about twelve ladders had been put at the place of the wall where Magical was.

Magical was now prepared to run near the tower that was at his right, because the most ladders were at that side. Yet, as he did so, a loud crash behind him drew his attention. He looked over his shoulder to see the top of the tower that was now behind him collapsing, hit be a flaming boulder.

The young man continued running and pushed one ladder as he passed next to it. Although it did not fall, Magical did not return to try again, because he was in a hurry to reach to the other side.

Yet, while he passed next to some iron-armoured archers, he saw a large boulder, which had a purple aura, flying towards the place where he was. Magical stopped immediately and the boulder hit the wall just in front of him, shaking the floor under his feet.

The young warrior looked at the ready to collapse wall in front of him. The boulder had left only one strait passage at the inner side of the wall. He walked on it cautiously, because deformed as it was, there was nothing under that part of the wall; if it collapsed, he would fall to the ground.

As he stepped on it cracks –more than those that already existed– started appearing under his feet. He was halfway there, when a rock under his one foot fell toward the ground. Magical suddenly, found himself standing on his one leg, moving his arms trying not to lose his balance. Seeing that he wouldn’t make it that way, he tried to grab something not to fall. As he did so, he felt a terrible pain at his hand and realised he had grabbed something infected.

Feeling that sudden pain, Magical jumped screaming. He landed near at the end of the passage. However, due to the sudden change of pressure, the passage collapsed before the minifigure could even figure out what had happened. Realising he was falling he grabbed the edge of the normal part of the wall.

“Help!” he bellowed and luckily someone came quickly to help him.

With a superhuman power the man lifted Magical, saving him. Magical stood up and looked at his saviour; it was Cyborg.

Neither of them stood to think of this, because they both ran to the ladders. At that moment five of them were at that part of the wall. Magical went to one of them, but before he could push it he was punched. He stepped back and looked at the attacker; two Dark Knights had now landed on the wall and more foes were following them…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Meanwhile at the tower next to them, Nirwell stood waiting. There were also two Sentinel Knights, two Nexus Archers, one Sentinel Samurai, one Paradox Space Marauder and a Mosaic Jester there. The Archers, the Samurai and the Marauder were standing in front of the two windows with a view to the army of the Maelstrom, shooting arrows and in the case of the Paradox blasts and rockets.

Then, suddenly, a boulder hit the tower above them and everything was shaken. Part of the ceiling and the wall collapsed. Nirwell and the Jester ran toward the vacuum created by the collapsing of the wall. They started firing, too the one with her flareguns and the other with his wand.

Yet, not much time had passed when the double leaf wooden door burst open. A Dark Knight and many Stromling ones entered the room of the tower. The Knights and the Samurai attacked them immediately and the Jester followed them. Nirwell shot both at the enemies on the tower and on the ones in front of it, outside the castle. The other three did not bother to change their target.

Another boulder hit the tower, this time under them. As they were shaken, one of the Sentinels flew across the room hit the wall and smashed. At that time, Nirwell decided she needed to focus on the present enemies, who were increasing. The combined forces of her, the Jester and the Samurai managed to smash the Dark Knight, but there were still multiple Stromling Knights.

However, at that moment an anchor appeared on the one window. It hit one of the two archers, who fell hurt and then smashed. The tower then started careening and Nirwell realised that the anchor was pulling the tower. Arrows started coming through the windows and the vacuum on the wall. One hit the other Archer, while Nirwell, too, felt a pain at her heel. Then, she knew what should happen.

“Get out of here! The tower will soon collapse! I’ll hold the Knights up; I can’t run and escape with my injured foot!” she bellowed to be heard.

The others looked at her and knew that she was absolutely serious. They did not disagree and Nirwell was happy for that; they couldn’t risk by delaying their leaving. She watched them leaving and then turned to the Stromling Knights.

The girl shot two of them and then collapsed to the ground. Her wounded foot couldn’t hold her anymore. She fired once more, but then she realised she was surrounded by her foes. She couldn’t defend herself; everything was blurry. For some reason, she looked at the window, at those moments that she knew would be her last. And through the window she saw fire…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The minifigures that had just been saved by Nirwell looked at the tower as it collapsed hit by a blazing boulder. They mourned for some seconds and then turned toward their enemies, who now filled the whole Wall. . .

### Chapter 14: Exeter’s Achievements

Kate was driving the Traverser madly to try and avoid not the several lasers, missiles and bombs that were sent against them –that, most of the times was impossible with a vessel so bigger than a starfighter or a rocket. No, the girl was trying to avoid crashing on other spaceships, which seemed to be everywhere around.

Shadow was running in one of the corridors of the ship going toward a cannon controller. He saw Warrior getting inside a controller room. Shadow started running even faster to reach the next one. However, before he had the time to run even a metre, a bomb fell on the ship exploding at the spot where Warrior was.

“WARRIOR! NO!” Shadow bellowed realising what had happened.

He gazed at the place where flames now blazed. Yet, before he even moved his hands the wall of the spaceship was rebuilt. Shadow looked through a window that was near and saw the Nexus Imaginer. At the centre of its roof there was a light blue dome, in which a minifigure was standing rebuilding what they could and conjuring Imagination Lightnings that passed through the dome without a problem.

Suddenly, the starship lowered a little and Shadow saw that they had almost reached the atmosphere of the world. He could see they were flying above the Sorcerers’ Woods, the forest that surrounded the Kingdoms’ Valley, where the Seven Kingdoms with their Seven Castles were found. They would be there soon.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Duke Exeter and a team of Elite Sentinel Samurai and Knights, the members of which the Duke had picked himself, were on the wall fighting the Stromling Knights and the occasional Dark ones.

Arthur Exeter was rarely wearing his helmet at battles. He actually was passionate about his hair and did not want to conceal them, so when he could he avoided wearing it. Yet, now was a very serious situation and it was hiding the handsomeness that he always boasted about.

However, even with that heavy armour he had already gained a few nasty injuries. Arthur thought that if the battle continued for too much time even he would fall down from exhaustion or from too many wounds.

The group of about fifteen Sentinels and five Nexus Knights, who were at that place of the wall, were fighting with about thirty enemies. The Duke pushed a Stromling away which fell and smashed just by the force. He hit a Stromling Knight and he smashed with just that one blow. Then, a Dark Knight appeared in front of him. The Duke struck him, but the Knight blocked the hit with his shield. The Maelstrom Being slashed at him and managed to hit the leg of Exeter, who however hit him once more smashing both the shield and the sword of his enemy. The Dark Knights were strong enemies, but not against him.

The Duke grinned, but his smile faded when he heard the characteristic sound and felt the shake that only the gangplank of a Siege Tower could cause. He looked over his shoulder and saw one of the wooden towers in front of the wall with Maelstromlings walking on the gangplank to reach the wall. Yet, they were not simple Darklings; they were a kind of Stromlings that the Duke had encountered only once. And the particular was actually the Invader kind of it: Electro-Sword Stromlings.

Arthur jumped on the gangplank before the Stromling Invaders could reach the end. He hit the first that approached him and it fell down, but did not smash. The Duke’s sword, Caliburn, which he had drawn from a stone back in his home planet, usually smashed Stromling enemies with one hit. He realised he was facing a very strong Stromling.

All that reminded him of his past at the Britay, the planet where he had been born. He remembered people trying to draw Caliburn, or Sword in the Stone as they called it. It had been first drawn by Arthur Pendragon, the famous King, but after his death it was put back on the stone. Ever since many tried to draw it again, because that would mean they would become Kings of Britay. Yet, the only one who managed it ever since was himself. He could recall how it started shining once he had drawn it. However, before Arthur was crowned Baron Typhonus found him and Arthur left for an “adventure greater than any other” as Typhonus had said.

Baron Typhonus! Typhonus, who had betrayed them. Typhonus, who had caused all this. The Duke struck an Invader at the rib so fiercely that he fell from the tower. Three more Invaders had been hit by his sword while he was thinking all that and Exeter had struck them once more smashing them. Then, suddenly three Electro-Stromlings came running all together. The Duke hit them using both his sword and shield and sent all three of them flying to the other edge of the gangplank. Exeter approached them and struck the first one smashing him. He repeated the same thing with the second. However, before he could go on to smash the third he felt a terrible pain starting from his leg. The third one had hit him with its sword-arm electrocuting him.

Arthur found the power and slashed his sword against the enemy. He smashed. The electrocution stopped and Arthur fell to his knees with smoke rising from his body. He knew that enemies would arrive soon, so he made an effort to stand up. He managed to do so and after looking at his partly-scorched skin he faced the five enemies that were coming toward him. However, they never reached him, because at that moment the side of the tower was hit by a boulder sent by a catapult. The tower careened without any of them expecting it. The Invaders fell towards the crowd of Maelstrom that was below them and Exeter lost his balance. He knew he would fall, so he decided to jump instead just for vanity…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dragon was waiting outside the door of the Sanatorium. Mirabilia, Talmid and some other Iron Riders were there, too. Only twelve of the Riders had made it back to the gate, one of them being Formosus, who wouldn’t probably make it.

Dragon couldn’t stand it. When he had got out on his horse, he was afraid for his life, but he hadn’t realised that the other Riders could have smashed. And even more he hadn’t realised that the others could have smashed while he would survive. Yet, now seven of his fellows had probably already smashed and one more was ready to follow them. Couldn’t he have been smashed, too? He wouldn’t feel all that grief and it would be a heroic end!

A Healer opened the door and got out. The Riders quickly gathered around him.

“Will he be okay?” asked one of them after a silence in which no one could talk.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have hopes! We don’t think we can heal him from the damage the poison made!”

Everything became somewhat blurry. He looked at the others. It was apparent that Mirabilia was crying and Dragon knew she wasn’t the only. He felt a tear rolling on his cheek.

Suddenly, everything seemed darker. In the past, he had always been optimistic about things, but now it seemed to him that the Universe was ending. He was surprised that everything hadn’t stopped moving or that things hadn’t started breaking, collapsing.

“Dragon! Come on! We’ll be needed in the battle!” someone said and his voice sounded as if it had come from really far away.

The battle! He had completely forgotten about it. All of a sudden, the sounds of it reached his ears as if he had been deaf until then.

“Yes, the battle!” Dragon said angry with himself for forgetting something so important. Besides it was the reason all those friends of his had smashed “Their sacrifice must not be at vain!”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Duke Exeter landed on the ground among the Maelstrom creatures making the earth shake and creating an Imagination wave around him. Many enemies were smashed by it. The Duke stood up and looked around. He was among many Dark Ronin Invaders.

Arthur slashed at them and many of them fell by his hands. He quickly left that spot, before much time had passed, because of what he knew would follow. And it happened just some seconds after Exeter was safe: the Siege Tower collapsed.

Arthur kept passing through the Ronin moving his sword and shield too quickly for the Ronin to stop him. Soon he approached a ladder put at the wall. He struck the Chainsaw Stromling that was going to ascend it. He started going up and hit any enemies that were in front of him. However, when the man was at the middle of the ladder someone pushed it away.

The Duke was quick at jumping, so as not to be crashed by the weight of the ladder, but the Stromlings that were ascending it were not. He looked around for another way up the wall and saw a different Siege Tower that had reached the wall.

Exeter made for it and soon found himself among Stromling Pirates and Stromling Pirate Invaders. They weren’t at all more difficult than the Ronin or the Knights. Soon enough, the Duke reached the tower in which he found the same enemies. He smashed the Pirates at that level and reached the ladder of the Tower. However, as he ascended it he felt a pain at his back. He looked back and saw a Stromling Pirate he kicked him with his foot and continued. Two parallel scratches at the back were added to his various injuries.

The higher he went, the more Invaders he found, until in the end at the level of the gangplank where there were only Stromling Admiral Invaders. One of them shot his anchor against him, but Arthur dodged it and it hit another Admiral, who smashed. The Admiral who sent the anchor fired a cannonball with its cannon. The cannonball hit his shield not injuring him, but it then fell on his foot making him start jumping on the one leg. While he did that he slashed at his attacker and smashed him. He smashed some more Admirals that were stupid enough to approach him.

When the pain at his foot faded, Arthur stood normally and looked around just in time to dodge two more cannonballs. Three Admirals shot their anchors then, but the chains tangled with each other and never reached their target. The Duke grabbed one of the chains and pulled it making all three of the Darklings to fall down. One more Admiral remained that hadn’t left the Tower through the gangplank and was standing still to fight. Arthur charged against him stepping over one of the fallen enemies. The Admiral flew to the wall and smashed. After that Duke Exeter ran on the gangplank pushing over any Maelstromlings that happened to get in front of him. He finally reached the wall and then saw how worse things had become in his absence…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Magical hit an Elite Mace Stromling Invader making it fall from the wall. There were many more, so Magical did not have any time to rest after the exhausting battle against the particular enemy. He heard explosions and felt the wall being shaken and he knew that the Stromlings were using explosives to breach the curtain wall. And then for a moment Magical looked at the sky and saw something that made his heart start beating harder and faster. He looked again to make sure it was real. It was; the FFFFF Traverser was coming towards the castle flying through the sky. . .

### Chapter 15: Shadow cometh

The FFFFF Traverser crossed the sky bombing the Maelstrom Army under it. Some lasers fired by it destroyed some Siege Towers and some Catapults. Soon it flew over the Outer Curtain Wall slowly and close to it. Two minifigures jumped quickly out of it and landed on the wall. Afterward the starship flew over the medieval city, attacked some more Siege Towers and left towards the space.

Shadow and Katie, the minifigures that had jumped, slashed at the nearby enemies, the first with his Revised Ice Saw and the latter with a cutlass. Some Mace Stromling Invaders approached them and Shadow’s ice saw collided with the mace of one of them. He pushed the enemy with his shield and then hit it on the head. It stepped backwards dizzy and Shadow struck again. After some more blows it got smashed. However, some simple Stromlings appeared. Of course they were very weak, but they were many and managed to split him from Kate.

Shadow slashed his weapon and many were smashed with each attack. However, he could not find his wife and he started to worry. However, he had no time to think of it very much, because the Mace Stromlings were still there. Shadow ducked to avoid an attack by one of them and fell on another. He blocked his attack with his shield and attempted a hit, too. However, the Mace Stromling blocked it with its mace. Then, Shadow felt something hitting him on the thigh. While he started to feel pain, he looked over his shoulder to see a Mace Stromling having hit him with its mace. Shadow attacked him and he fell unconscious.

While he turned around to face the other enemy he already knew that there was no time to react to any attack. However, when he looked he saw the Darkling being smashed. While he looked at his saviour to see whether it was Kate, he thought that he couldn’t even remember all the times he had thought he would be smashed, but was finally saved. Yet, it was not Kate. It was Magical.

“You’re late!” the man said without any expression on his face.

“A Shadow is never late, nor is he early!” answered Shadow smiling.

“Oh, come on! That’s completely stolen!!! Gandalf has probably copyrighted the phrase!” Magical replied.

They laughed, but the laugh was brief, because they still had to fight five Invaders. Magical’s swords and technique were more effective and he could smash the enemies with just two blows. Shadow, on the other hand, had to hit them multiple times and Magical had to save him once more. All that reminded them very much of the old battles at Yorkanton City.

“Did you, by any chance, see Katie?” asked Shadow after they smashed the last Mace Stromling and there was a brief moment during which they could rest.

“No! I thought she would be with you! What happened?” Magical responded pushing one of the ladders.

“She was, but we were split!” Shadow told him, while many falling Maelstromlings shrieked.

Nothing more was said, because a wave of Electro-Sword Stromlings and Dark Ronin appeared. They and two more minifigures started fighting them, just the moment when a distant buzz was heard. They looked at the sky from which the noise was heard and saw seven infected World War II Aeroplanes approaching them in an angular formation. Soon a similar buzz was heard from the castle and they saw eleven Nexus Aircrafts taking off in the same formation.

The four minifigures looked at the Stromlings and the Ronin again and focused on them. Shadow unfolded the bow parts of his weapon and it turned into a crossbow. He shot arrows at the enemies while the rest fought hand-to-hand. They had smashed six of their opponents when the wall was shaken by one more flaming boulder. Shadow moved a bit forward and he immediately realised how lucky he was he had done that. The wall behind him had collapsed with only half of it standing. Shadow walked a little bit more to be out of the danger. At that moment one more Maelstrom Being was being smashed, while another was falling from the wall. There were only three enemies remaining close to them.

Yet, before they could defeat anyone else a Stromling Ape appeared from the side of the wall. Probably, it had managed to climb the smashed wall. Shadow fired many arrows against it and Magical started running toward it. The Ape grabbed a big rock that had previously been part of the smashed wall. The rock crossed the air towards him, but Shadow dodged it. Unfortunately, it hit one of the other minifigures and he smashed. Luckily, there were no other rocks nearby for the Ape to throw. By that time, Magical had reached and was slashing his swords against it. One of them hit it on the chest, but the Ape furious punched him with its huge fist. Magical flew away and he fell between the two remaining Electro-Stromlings.

“Oh, brick! I hoped to use these later!” Shadow said while he grabbed a firecracker from his backpack.

The explosive hit the Ape on the head. Of course, its power was not enough to smash it, but it made the Ape step backwards dizzily and fall at the vacuum of the wall.

Shadow heaved a sigh relieved, but looking over his shoulder he saw more enemies having come. Many Stromling Pirate Invaders had reinforced the Electro-Stromlings and the Ronin. However, help came soon. They had not done much when a shiny armoured minifigure came to their aid. He smashed some of the Pirates and then Shadow recognised him. It was Dragon.

“I heard that a Siege Tower was close here, but it seems I had false information!” he said “By the way, Shadow, why did you part with Katie? I saw her fighting some Stromling Monkeys on her own!”

“Katie! Where exactly is she?!” Shadow exclaimed instantly.

“Over there near the collapsed tower!” said the man pointing to the tower where Nirwell had fought “What…?”

Yet, Shadow had already started running. He bumped on two Ronin on his way and had to fight through some Stromling Admirals. Halfway there, the wall was shaken again. Looking over his shoulder Shadow saw a Siege Tower had put its gangplank on the curtain wall. Shadow kept running and met some Stromling Knights. He smashed two of them with many efforts and then managed to escape.

However, when he finally reached the place, he only saw two Nexus Knights fighting some Stromling Monkeys. Where was she?

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The Hammer Stromlings stepped aside to make room for the battering ram to pass. A huge wooden and metal battering ram was being carried by some Stromling Trolls and protected by Dark Knights. The metal head of its was a terrifying Dragon Head. Its half-open mouth was full of Maelstrom flames. The battering ram was pulled back. Then, it was left and it flew towards the gates. . .

### Chapter 16: The Duke and Vanda’s Achievements

Arthur Exeter heard the loud bang that was caused by the battering ram hitting the gates. As soon as he did so, he knew he needed to go where the gate was and defend it. Yet, it was not as simple as that. The enemies around had multiplied. The part of the curtain wall in which he was was full of Stromling Admirals, Stromling Pirates, Stromling Knights, Chainsaw Stromlings and Electro-Sword Stromlings –all of them were Invaders. Additionally, the floor was teeming with Dark Ones and Freak Darklings, while Grumpy Darklings were flying above the Nexus Fighters diving every now and then to attack them. Finally, Stromling Archers on the two Siege Towers which had put their gangplank on the wall were shooting arrows against them.

Arthur slashed at some of the nearby Admirals and tried to move on the crowded wall. A Grumpy Darkling dived against him preparing to attack with its hammer. However, Exeter was faster. The Darkling’s pieces fell on a group of Chainsaw Stromlings that appeared to attack him. The Duke smashed one of them, but then had to dodge the blows of the others. Their chainsaws started whirling threateningly. Exeter blocked their attacks with his sword and shield. Yet, one of them managed to cut his shield into two pieces. The Duke managed to smash that one, but afterward he only had time to block and dodge and not to strike back. He was facing too many enemies to fight without a shield.

Things got worse soon when a bunch of Stromling Pirates appeared behind him. He kicked one of them and it fell throwing some others down, too. That gave him enough time to block a chainsaw attack so fiercely that it hit its owner instead smashing him. Yet, the Pirates recovered soon and the Duke had to do something. Then, all of a sudden, it dawned on him what he should do. He simply jumped vertically somersaulting and landed hitting his sword down. An Imagination Wave smashed many of them. He would now be able to face them with no fear, if half a dozen Freak Darklings hadn’t come to the Pirate and Stromling’s aid.

The Freak Darklings were very short, but that was an advantage and not a drawback. Their opponent had to stoop to hit them, while they could attack the feet of his with their long claws. Afterwards the opponent would fall and they could finish him off. That plan was implemented against Exeter, too. He suddenly felt multiple claws injuring his legs and feet having not noticed the little enemies among the crowd of tall minifigure-like Maelstromlings. He fell down outraged at how he had been fooled. He moved his sword skillfully even from the floor and the Freak Darklings were smashed while some Pirates fell as well. However, Arthur knew he couldn’t fight the enemies that were standing above him smirking.

Suddenly, there was a purple flash and the enemies were smashed. Arthur looked upwards and saw a pale-skinned girl with black hair and an infected tuft of hair, which had been caused by an experiment that had not gone well.

“Oh, no! Not you!” Arthur said as he stood up and saw the rest of Vanda Darkflame.

She was wearing her usual red clothes refusing to wear armour, believing that it would just slow her down being heavy and would not help her stealth. That was the reason she didn’t like the Sentinels much; far too noisy, shiny and slow for her liking. Armour was for those who couldn’t hide themselves and needed protection. She was holding her two Maelstrom-Infused Katanas. Her mouth was concealed like always behind a red scarf, but Exeter still thought that he saw her grinning.

The Duke and Vanda never liked each other much. Arthur had protested when Albert had suggested that she joined them as the fourth leader of their Force that would be later named Nexus Force. He was still a bit angry at how he had been forced to accept her and for the first five years of the war he didn’t trust the young woman. He thought that, being the former apprentice of Typhonus, she was a spy and would betray them. However, even after he had to admit she was no spy, he couldn’t start liking her. All that made it very irritating and frustrating for Exeter to be saved by her.

“Hello, Arthur!” Vanda said and now he was sure she was grinning “What the brick made you fight so recklessly to be ready to be smashed?”

“I was in a rush to reach the gate! I need to stop the ram!” Arthur replied angrily, remembering his purpose and realising that he had only heard the ram hitting only two or three more times. Luckily, it seemed someone else was delaying them.

“Well then, you should feel lucky that I am here. You can’t think that you’ll reach that far alone without getting into similar situations, can you?!” she said and her eyes were making it obvious how much she liked the whole situation.

“Does that mean you want to come, too?!” responded Arthur disappointed and irritated while he smashed a Grumpy Darkling.

“Absolutely!” Vanda said and smashed an Electro-Stromling hitting him with both katanas “We should be going!” she added as the battering ram was heard once again.

The two minifigures, both about forty years old, started fighting their way toward the collapsed tower in which Nirwell had fought. No matter how much they disliked each other, they were an excellent duo fighting together. It only took them five minutes to reach the edge before the collapsed tower. There, many Dark Ones were waiting for anyone who would like to pass from the one part of the wall to the other. They smashed about twenty of them and threw as many at the vacuum between the two parts of the wall before the rest retreated.

The vacuum the collapsed tower had left (of course part of the tower was still standing, but only half of its) was big, but not enough for them not to be able to jump to the other side. Vanda jumped first somersaulting in the middle. She landed at the other side with grace and Exeter wondered whether that was a skill she had gained as a ninja. The Duke first threw his sword at the other side and then jumped himself. He somersaulted like Vanda, but his panoply made him heavier and he did not do as well. He almost fell hitting on the “cliff” and gripped the wall for dear life. Vanda pulled him and saved him for a second time.

At that side of the curtain wall they saw a group of fierce Stromling Monkeys fighting with a green-wearing minifigure. He seemed familiar to Arthur and after a second of thought he realised it was Strange Odd Shadow. He was an annoying and whimsical minifigure, at the Duke’s point of view, and had caused much trouble some months ago. Whatever Albert said about his genius and his help, Arthur still didn’t like him.

Shadow was fighting the monkeys as fiercely as they were fighting him. Although Arthur would be proud of any Sentinel that fought so passionately, he thought it didn’t fit that boy. He wondered what had caused this change to the normally peaceful-looking boy.

Yet, the Monkeys noticed them just then and attacked them making him focus on them. The Duke fought well, but Vanda’s agility was more effective against those enemies. Soon she had smashed many more than Exeter or Shadow.

Soon the monkeys were very few and the two minifigures left Shadow to fight them on his own. On their way they encountered many enemies, but managed to defeat them all, gaining, however, some more injuries. Not much time had passed when the two Leaders reached the place where the wall had collapsed before. The space was bigger than the previous one and they couldn’t jump to the other side. Furthermore, there was one more, smaller vacuum after it, where Magical had almost fallen before. There was no way for them to continue their way.

“How are we going to reach the gate now?!” the Duke said.

The answer came as the wall was shaken once more and a Siege Tower put its gangplank just next to them. The two Leaders looked at each other and without even nodding they charged against the upcoming enemies on the Tower. They were Hammer Stromlings and Dark Ones. The two minifigures smashed many of them easily, especially since a blue-wearing minifigure came to their aid. He was Magical Fire Monkey, as Exeter realised, the man who had foreseen all this. Seeing him fighting, Arthur was proud of having such an excellent fighter in the Sentinels.

Vanda and Arthur proceeded going into the tower while Magical returned to the wall. They fought some more enemies there, but they fell easily. A bang, louder than the previous ones, alerted them. Arthur smashed the side wall with his sword and through there they managed to see the Battering Ram away in front of the gate. Four Stromling Trolls were pulling it, while it was surrounded by many Stromling Knights. The pieces of two Trolls and many Knights lay there, too. All the rest of the crowd around them was made by Hammer Stromlings, Dark Ones, Freak and Grumpy Darklings.

The Duke grabbed a bow from his backpack and some arrows. He shot them against one of the Trolls, but most of them just smashed when they hit it.

“Watch and learn!” Vanda said and slashed her katana in the air.

A Maelstrom Blast was conjured and launched against the same Troll. Once hit the Troll left the Battering Ram roaring and moving uncontrollably hitting many of the Knights, too. In the end it fell down and smashed.

“I didn’t know that simple Maelstrom Blasts were so strong!” Exeter commented frowning for not having defeated the Darkling himself.

“That’s because they aren’t! This one was not simple at all. When it hits Maelstrom it turns Maelstrom against its own body!” replied Vanda self-complacently, while something shiny moved near the Ram.

They had not time to talk furthermore, because many volleys of arrows were sent against them by Archers on other Siege Towers. The two Leaders had to duck behind the Tower’s wooden walls to avoid being hit. They watched the wall being pierced by Maelstrom-Infected arrow peaks and arrows getting in through the hole on the wall, with terror drawn on their faces.

As soon as the arrows stopped coming for a little they returned to their previous position just to find three Grumpy Darklings charging against them. They struck them at the wings and they fell unable to fly. For a second Vanda managed to see an Iron Rider fighting a Troll and many Knights; the shiny movement before must have been him. Yet, after that more arrows crossed the air towards them and they had to dodge them. In addition, Hammer Stromlings had just ascended the ladder of the Tower.

The two minifigures fought as well as they could the enemies trying to avoid the arrows, too. Yet, one of them managed to hit Arthur on the thigh, while another struck Vanda on her arm.

“We can’t fight from here!” Arthur said before kicking an enemy and then starting descending the ladder.

The Paradox Leader followed him and found herself in a level already half full of smashed enemies. The Duke had probably taken them by surprise. Vanda got into the fight and they soon went on to descend downstairs. Reaching the ground floor was not difficult or time-consuming, since the lower they went the easiest the enemies were.

Finally, they reached the ground and got out into the Maelstrom Mob. Vanda stretched her arms and after a purple flash many of the enemies around them petrified.

“Come on! It won’t last!” she said and started running toward the Battering Ram.

Arthur followed her almost as quickly as her. However, he also smashed as many enemies as he could while running. Soon they got out of the petrified area and had to fight their way through their enemies again. About halfway to their destination, Arthur raised his sword, which suddenly glowed more intensely than before. Many enemies fled just by the sight of that, while the ones who remained were smashed by it. After that, most of their enemies got out of their way retreating temporarily.

However, when they reached the ringer of the Stromling Knights, the enemies did not leave. The Knights were braver than the other kinds of Stromlings. Those Darklings did not leave them pass. Yet, with one slash Exeter hit three of them and they crossed the air falling at the other side of the ringer.

As soon as they entered the ringer they saw one of the Trolls falling down struck by the Iron Rider, who was actually Dragon. The two Leaders charged against the two remaining Trolls. Vanda tried to strike the one at its legs, but it grabbed one of her katanas and crashed it in his hand. Vanda looked at it with blazing eyes and a mauve fire appeared in her free hand. She launched the flame against it and it hit the Troll where the heart was. It stepped back a few times and then fell on the Battering Ram smashing it into two. Many arrows were shot against them by Stromling Archers everywhere around them. However, that didn’t help them at all. Vanda created a purple spherical shield around her that disintegrated any arrow that touched it. Dragon was wearing panoply so hard that couldn’t be penetrated with arrows sent from that far. Arthur was saved by the Troll which he was fighting. Those arrows that hit it were the final blow and the Troll fell defeated. They had done it! They had saved the gate!

*For now, at least!* thought Vanda. . .

### Chapter 17: Myrror’s Arrival

Shadow kicked the last Stromling Monkey and it fell from the wall. While the shrieking of the falling monkey was heard, he looked around and thought about what he should do then. He decided there was no way that Kate had returned to the side from which he had come, because he would have seen her. So, he jumped the vacuum.

At the middle of the jump some Imagination waves started from his feet and he was boosted, so that he reached the other side making a somersault. This was one of the latest features he had added to his gear. It had all started, when Shadow had started studying the boosted jump of the Buccaneers. Yet, he ended up making his own Jump Boost.

At the other side he faced some Dark Ones, but the raged Strange Odd Shadow should be feared even if he didn’t have his technology to help him; but he had it and that made him even more dangerous. And indeed Shadow was feeling rage at that moment, for Maelstrom had split him from his beloved Katie.

He left the pieces of the Dark Ones behind and continued his way. Some Grumpy Darklings dived to attack him, but Shadow dodged the attacks and struck at them furiously smashing them.

Then, something furry passed quickly in front of him and for a second Shadow thought that he was not done with Stromling Monkeys. Yet, afterwards he realised it was a normal monkey, not an infected one. Shadow recognised Swabbie the Monkey. He remembered his mother talking to him about the incident it had caused in Gnarled Forest. The Ninja had claimed that they had sent the monkey for the Pirates to be distracted while some Ninja Prisoners were saved. The truth, however, was that Swabbie was just a crazed monkey that would cause havoc any time it grabbed a pistol or saw a banana. The Ninja had just spread that rumour to seem smart.

Swabbie was now holding a Flintlock Pistol and a Banana Gun with its hands and a sword with its tail. Shadow wondered why would anyone use a Banana Gun in such a battle, but then again it was a crazed monkey using it. However, Shadow couldn’t help but notice that Swabbie was very efficient at defeating his enemies. That happened mainly due to Swabbie’s being restless and fast.

Shadow suddenly remembered what he was doing and started moving again. He reached a line of minifigures, which was stopping the crowd of Maelstrom from spreading to the rest of the curtain wall, and passed it.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Myrror was riding a black horse through the strait valley between the two mountain ranges that came close to the Ferrum Castle. Until then he had been in an area at the outer side of the Sorcerers’ Woods investigating something. He was in the middle of that investigation, when the message about the Battle reached. He finished as quickly as possible and was now heading for the Castle, hoping that he would arrive soon enough. He was wearing his old black robes, but both his hood and scarves had been removed revealing his completely black face. At his hands was a long staff with an orange spherical crystal on its top.

While he passed through the Sorcerers’ Woods, he had seen how much destruction the Maelstrom had caused. That had made him go faster. However, when he entered the Mid-Mountain Valley, a feeling that he was being watched was worse. And that was not the only thing. Myrror was pretty sure that in that short time not all the forces that had entered the valley would have got out. He was sure they had got in, because he could see tracks of infection all over the place. Where had all the Darklings gone? Were they hiding? And if they were, why did they? All those questions and feelings made Myrror feel very worried.

Then, he turned and the Watchtower came into view. Myrror could tell it had been attack for it was so damaged it barely stood. His horse started galloping even faster, as if it had sensed a mysterious presence, too. They had now approached the Watchtower very much. That was when Myrror heard a deep voice shout: “NOW!!!”

Myrror looked over his shoulder and saw dozens of Maelstrom Beings appearing from each mountain range. At the one side in front of all others, a Stromling Sorcerer was galloping. He was wearing purple robes and wizard’s hat. He was holding a scepter too, but his own had a purple crystal. That was Encha the Sorcerer, the most powerful of all the Stromling Sorcerers, Warlocks and Magicians. They even said he was an Enchanter.

It was weird to think that the Maelstrom had expected him. The trap was for him, for if it wasn’t it would just be for the first passerby, which wouldn’t make sense. But why would the Maelstrom want to trap *him*. Unless the Maelstrom knew who he really was… Could the Maelstrom know something that everyone else ignored?

Myrror forced his horse to run even faster, but that was not enough. The Maelstromlings blocked both passages around the tower before he could pass. That meant that there was only one way now: through the Tower.

Myrror burst in through the broken gate and made for the stairway. As soon as he reached it, Encha got into the tower followed by many others. He started going up, still on his horse. The ascending was very perilous, because many parts of the stairs had already collapsed while others collapsed now. Myrror reached the first floor, but didn’t stop. He kept ascending heading for the top. Every time his horse –and he with it– was in danger of falling, it was mysteriously boosted forward and saved.

At last, Myrror arrived in the final floor. He looked at the ceiling. Half of it had collapsed. The horse jumped and as mysteriously as before it reached the roof. It seemed that magic had to do something with it. Myrror looked down at the final floor and saw Encha appearing in the staircase’s top. He didn’t have much time. He raised his staff over his head and its jewel started glowing. This time it was certain he was using magic. An orange lightning was conjured and it struck the base of the building at the side where he had come from. That caused the Watchtower to start falling toward the other side.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Vanda and Arthur had finally managed to get on the wall again and they were panting. After they had defeated the Trolls and smashed the Battering Ram, some Stromling Gorillas, twice as big as the Apes, had appeared and given them a hard time.

Yet, now that they were up there they realised that things were worse than ever. Wherever there was no Siege Tower there was a ladder. It was almost impossible to see one friend among the various foes, who had already started trying to descend the wall.

“I think we’ll have to execute Order 34!” Exeter said while he blocked one blow with his sword.

“Do it!” Vanda said.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Myrror was now approaching the wall. His horse had jumped the last second before the tower crashed on the ground. At the other side of the Watchtower, it was possible to see the Forces of Maelstrom that had gathered around the walls. He had created an Imagination spherical shield around him and his horse. Nonetheless the horse had been hit and Myrror had to continue on his own. He was sad that the horse had fallen, but he also felt lucky to have made it all the way to the Outer Curtain Wall. The fact that the enemies were looking at the other side had helped as much as his shield, skill and speed had. Now, he was facing the wall with awe for flames burst out all over it. . .

### Chapter 18: In the Mid-Wall

Shadow watched the flames covering every little bit of the Outer Curtain Wall. He hoped that Kate had managed to leave the Wall before the fire blazed. He wasn’t worried about the Wall being on fire, because that was the plan. Order 34 was an evacuation order, so that the wall could be splashed all over with oil and then burnt, so that any Maelstrom on it was smashed.

Shadow realised that their enemies wouldn’t need much time to breach the wall and left the spot near the wall where he was. He needed to go to his position. Besides Kate’s position was close. If he went to his own, he could easily search for Katie.

There were many large buildings he passed and finally he reached a very thin chain link fence. He remembered coming up with the idea for that. Many had disagreed to using it, including Panagis, but Shadow in the end had managed to persuade them to use it. He climbed it, like many others were doing at the time.

At the other side there weren’t any buildings, just green grass and some defending machinery. Shadow ran toward the gate, sweating with the rough midday sun on his back. While he was halfway there, he heard the characteristic sound of aircraft. He looked over his shoulder and saw three airplanes returning, two of them leaving smoke tracks behind them. They flew over one of the large buildings, where aircraft like those were kept. They started making circles around it not landing. Shadow wondered why they did that when he noticed that more Maelstrom Airplanes were coming. Soon seven more planes took off and together with the other three they made for the enemy’s Air Fleet. Shadow had a bad feeling about this next wave of planes.

Finally, after some more minutes, Shadow reached the Inner Wall and ran for the gate. Many minifigures were gathering in front of the wall. They were the ones that had volunteered to fight in front of the Inner Curtain Wall. Shadow saw Magical among them, but had no time to say hi. He ran through the open gates and got at the interior of the town. Then, he headed for the closest Tower, so that he could ascend to the Wall.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Myrror fought his way through the Maelstrom Mob hitting with his staff, whoever attacked him. He was now near the Gates of the Southern Side. Many Stromling Mechs (Invaders or not) were gathered in front of them launching Maelstrom Blasts against them. The Gates were already in a bad state after being damaged by the Battering Ram and it seemed that they would break any minute now.

Myrror reached the Mechs and attacked them. He had only smashed two of them when the Gates were smashed to smithereens. There were more gates behind them at the other side of the wall, but Myrror was sure they’d manage to smash it, before he could stop them. And Myrror was more than correct.

A strange Mech that had overly large arms and hands and no guns walked in front of the others. It put its hands on the gate… and then exploded. It was a Bombling Mech and its big arms were actually explosives. Two more of its kind approached the Gates and their explosion was enough for the Gate to be smashed, too.

All the Mechs invaded the Castle with a speed Myrror didn’t know that Mechs had. However, as soon as they got in the Mechs faced the first obstacle: Mechs! A group of about 50 Paradox Mechs, with PRDX-4 and PRDX-7 in the front, was waiting for the first intruders.

Myrror ran after them and got inside the Mid-Wall. He blasted some of the Mechs, but quickly left. He had to talk to Mardolf the Orange, his master. It was him that had sent him to that mission, which had made him late, and now he had important information to tell him.

He ran through the large buildings and saw Nexus Tanks appearing everywhere. Soon he reached the fence, too, and almost fell on it, since it was so thin that it was almost invisible. He climbed it and without knowing it, he followed the steps of Shadow.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Shadow was now on the wall. However, there was not sight of Katie. His position was at the middle of that wall part over the Inner Southern Gate, while Kate was supposed to be near the tower at his right. However, Shadow could not find her. . .

### Chapter 19: Concerning a River and some Ships

Beck Strongheart watched the soldiers moving at the Mid-Wall from the Inner Curtain Wall. He jibed his gaze towards the outer parts of the valley lying before him. Something in the distance troubled him, so he put some binoculars at his eyes to see better. He hadn’t been mistaken.

There was a river running through the town entering through the Eastern Part of the Wall and getting out from a little closer. There was some sort of gates at the places where the river separated the Walls and they were being guarded as well as the normal gates. However, what Beck saw was quite alarming: a whole fleet of ships coming towards the River Gate.

“Oh, my brick! Epsilon! Look at that!” Beck exclaimed giving the binoculars to Epsilon Starcracker, who was standing close to him and pointing to the fleet.

“We must do something to stop those ships!” Epsilon said.

A Nexus Knight, who had been watching them and listening to them until then, said: “Quickly, come with me! I know a way! Quickly!”

“Wh…”

“Quickly!” the man said and started walking fast, almost running.

The two minifigures had their reservations, but followed him, Epsilon with some difficulty due to recently having been injured at Venture Explorer and not having fully recovered.

“Where are we going?” asked a hobbling Epsilon with a tightened face five minutes later trying not to show his pain or tiredness.

“A secret passage!” the man said “It leads right to the riverbank! We’re almost there”

Some minutes later, they reached a house that seemed abandoned. It had one of those outer doors that lead to basements. However, as soon as they descended the stairs, they found themselves in a passageway instead of a basement. It was very dark, but the Knight lighted a torch he found there.

“The passageway was used for secret or quick entering goods in the castle. A ship doesn’t have to pass through the River Gates and things happen much more smoothly. However, since the War started and trade stopped altogether, this has been abandoned! Yet, it is exactly what we need now!” the mysterious man explained.

They had been walking –almost running– for quite a time when they heard the sounds of aeroplanes fighting above them. Epsilon and Beck stood and listened, but the Knight insisted on continuing immediately.

“We’re almost there! Come!”

Indeed not even five minutes after hearing the aircrafts the passage started going upwards and they reached a small door. They pushed and it opened. Once they got out in the open, they felt the bright sunlight blinding them. They blinked a little and finally got used to the light. No sooner did that happen than they realised in what a good spot they were. The riverbank was just in front of them. The infantry Maelstrom was behind them going towards the Outer Curtain Wall. The ships hadn’t passed them yet, but they were quite close. However, they were not going very fast, because once in a while some of them would stop for some Maelstrom to disembark or embark (talking about Darklings at the other side of the river in this case).

“You go busy them, while I prepare my trap!” the man said closing the camouflaged door.

“How?!” both men said at the same time.

“Don’t you have any explosives or anything that will set them on fire?” the Knight replied not even looking at them, concerning himself with a mechanism it seemed he had got from his backpack.

The two friends said nothing more and instead turned around and headed for the ships. They both grabbed Big Ones and other explosives stronger or not.

The river was not very big. Only three ships –and not very big ships– could pass from a point at the same time. Yet, there were many series of them. Beck would say there could even be 100 ships. There was a wide variety of ships from Greek Triremes to Medieval Carracks and to Technologically Super-Advanced Ships. And of course they were all infected.

Two Big Ones were tossed into the first ship the two explosions setting it on fire. The ship stopped unexpectedly for the other ships and the one behind the hit one crashed on it. Both ships were severely damaged and started sinking. As soon as the crash occurred arrows and bullets started being shot against them.

Beck and Epsilon maneuvered to avoid the first volley of projectiles, but Beck was hit at one arm by an arrow and Epsilon’s rib was scraped by a bullet. They launched some more explosives, but most fell into the water.

“This is my last Big One!” Beck said showing a Big One in his hand, while the explosions in the water create jets of water “I don’t usually carry many explosions with me!”

“I have some more!” Epsilon said “Use yours wisely!”

However, more projectiles were sent against them and they had to start maneuvering again. While they did that they saw the Knight running bowed to avoid the bullets and arrows. He was holding another similar mechanism like the one before. When he was about at the one quarter of the advance of ships he stopped and placed the mechanism into the water.

“They mustn’t see him!” Beck told Epsilon.

“The Big One!”

The explosives hit the ship the exact moment when the man was noticed running even more further by some Stromlings. However, the panic caused by the explosions made them forget about it.

“Run!” Epsilon said as more projectiles were shot.

Beck and Epsilon started running and they were deafened by the sound of bullets crashing on metal. They had hit Beck’s breastplate, but luckily not surpassed it.

Epsilon tossed the rest of his explosives and then started firing his weapons. However, things were getting quite bad. They hadn’t managed to cause damage to many ships, they had run out of strong weapons and the gunfire of their enemies was still coming as much as ever. One arrow hit Epsilon on the leg, while two bullets penetrated Beck’s panoply. They would certainly have been doomed if the Knight hadn’t appeared.

“Quickly, back to the passage!!!” he bellowed and they all ran.

The two minifigures were closer to the door and managed to get inside without being hit furthermore. However, the man was hit by some bullets and arrows.

“You go… castle… I stay… stop Mael… Maelstrom!!!” the man said puffing.

“Why?” Beck asked.

“The explosion will not happen immediately! The Maelstrom now knows about the passageway! I mustn’t let them pass!”

“Okay!”

“Beck! Will you let him do that?!” Epsilon protested “It’s a suicidal mission!”

“Epsilon, you must understand that when someone sacrifices for the greater good, there’s nothing you can do!” Beck said “But tell me, man: What is your name? I would like to tell people about your story!”

“My name is Arcanum Intrepidius! Now leave” the man told them for someone had just banged the door.

Beck did the only thing he could think to honour the man: he saluted him. And then he started running taking Epsilon, who wouldn’t be able to run anymore anyway, at his arms.

The two friends were at the middle of the passageway when they heard the tremendous explosion. Certainly, it would have reached the start of the passage, too…

Yet, another sound, which they started hearing a little later, mixed their grief with panic. It was the sound of rocks collapsing. The passage was collapsing!

Beck started running even more quickly. Those two minutes of running seemed to them like two centuries. However, in the end they saw a light in the absolute darkness and they realised they were almost there. With renewed hopes and powers Beck ran the last metres with the greatest speed he could reach. His legs and shoulders –on which he had put Epsilon– were in terrible pain, but he didn’t stop until they were safe. The sunlight blinding them was the most relieving thing in the world. Later, when Beck would describe that story to others he would say that they were saved for mere seconds, but that probably was an exaggeration. Yet, they had survived. . .

### Chapter 20: The Battle of the Mid-Wall begins

Magical looked at the minifigures gathering around him. He had been put in command of a group of about a hundred people. There were thirty four Sentinels, twenty seven Nexus Knights, eleven Venture League Members, nine Paradox ones and the rest were Assembly, Non-Faction-Gear-Wearing and Non-Categorised-Gear-Wearing minifigures.

“Listen to me!” Magical bellowed to them “I want the Nexus Knights and the Sentinels to form a group. Then, I want you to split into two! Each subgroup will go to the edges of the whole team! Paradox and Venture League: I want you to do the same thing, but go next to the two other subgroups at the interior of the team. The rest with me at the centre!”

Five minutes passed until the minifigures had toed the line as said. Magical found himself between a Bat Lord and the Mosaic Jester that was at the same balcony with them at the Nexus Meeting. Magical looked back at the open gates they would be guarding and hoped the plan would work for it was very risky. Then, he looked upwards at the top of the walls. An Imagination Energy Shield had been just activated creating a light blue transparent dome that covered the whole town until the Inner Curtain Wall. He then looked at the other groups of volunteers that were near them.

At their right was a group quite bigger than theirs. It consisted of about three hundred minifigures. They were a particular Squad, which they called “The Hellenes Hoplitae”, The Greek Hoplites. However, for some reason people had the tendency to call them Spartans. Some of the most known were, Achilles Plutarch the Vendor, Leonidas, Miltiades, Themistocles and Lysandros. At their left was a group of volunteers like theirs.

Suddenly, screeches were heard from the front. Everyone silenced and got ready for battle. The first enemies had fallen on the trap that Shadow had prepared. The very thin fence was quite difficult to see, especially for the Maelstrom Being’s blurry sight. Thus, with the mindless creatures running without thinking many of them would fall on it before they realised the danger. For after all minifigures had gotten inside, a high voltage would be applied to the fence electrocuting any creature touching it and any being touching the other creatures that were electrocuted. But of course such a fence would be easily cut since its purpose was not to stop but just to smash.

Then, the Maelstrom Mob appeared in the green grass area, sooner than what Magical had expected. He started feeling a sudden odd emotion, which was very unusual for him: fear. He didn’t know why he was afraid especially then. Maybe, because he felt exposed outside the walls. He tried to forget it, because he felt ashamed of himself for feeling fear. He, Magical, was afraid of a battle. Maybe he did not worth being called a Sentinel. Yet, the feeling had now rooted in his heart.

Like the first time the Maelstromlings had appeared this day, the weakest and stupidest enemies arrived first. The two armies collided and the air was filled with the sounds of the clangs of swords and shields, of the bangs of pistols and blasters and of the arrows crossing the air.

The first waves of enemies were easy to defeat, but then Stromling Knights and Dark Knights appeared making things more difficult. Yet, Magical’s plan had worked. The strongest fighters at the edges had gained ground and had gone forward. Hence the part of the Maelstrom Forces that had headed toward them had to face enemies both at its front and its sides, being half-surrounded. The battle was going well and Magical’s fear seemed to diminish. . .

### Chapter 21: In the Bridge

Glittery made the Traverser turn right to avoid one more bomb. Yet, a missile hit the spaceship at the right wing. She pressed some buttons and many lasers were shot at the spaceships around theirs.

“Holy Crux! We barely can move and half our repair droids are smashed!!!” Glittery said to no one in particular.

A laser hit the starship making it shake and then it remained still, unable to move at all.

“Holy Crux!” the girl exclaimed again “There’s no way we survive this!!!”

“Glittery, are you there?” Brick’s voice came to her through a communicator “I am out of missiles! I only have lasers now! I don’t know wheth-”

Yet, Brick did not finish his sentence and communication was cut off.

“Brick! Brick! Do you hear me? Are you there?! Oh my Nexus, Brick!” Glittery spoke.

The Traverser was shaken again and Glittery heard explosions very close to her. The girl looked around in fear. She fired again, but she knew it was just a matter of time to be fatally damaged.

“Gregory to the bridge! Is everything okay over there?” said another recruit of the team.

“I’m okay! What about you?”

“Jean and I are fine, just a little bit injured! Do you know whether Brick is fine? Lasers were shot towards his direction!”

“I think he… he may… may have…”

“Not Brick, too! Let’s hope of the best!”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Shadow watched the armies colliding in front of the wall. He hoped that Magical would return from down there; that everyone would. Yet, he knew not all of them could.

He was watching things through the Imagination Energy Shield. He took his crossbow out of his backpack again and started shooting arrows. Then, a most incredible thing happened that all the later generations would just think was an exaggeration. Arrows from both sides were launched. And they were so many that it is said they covered the sky and sunlight could not reach the ground. Luckily for them, the Shield stopped any Maelstrom, but not anything else. Thus, any arrows that did not collide with others just stopped there and so did the Maelstrom boulders.

While he kept attacking, Shadow looked around him for what would be the hundredth time. Yet, still there was no sight of Kate. While he turned his head to look at the battle below, he heard a great bang coming from the side of the river. It was the explosion of Beck, Epsilon and Arcanum. Yet, Shadow did not know what it was and hoped that it had been caused by them and not the Maelstrom. And then his train of thought reached his wife again.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Once more the spaceship was shaken. Glittery was still firing at the enemy ships with any of the remnant cannons she was controlling. Gregory and Jean were at one of the last Cannon-Controlling Rooms also fighting.

The girl hit a Bomber of the enemy, which fell on one of its big spaceships causing a major explosion. This was the biggest success she had for quite some time. *And my last one, I suppose*, she thought.

Afterwards, something much unexpected happened. There was a knock on the door and then it was opened. Glittery turned around and saw a much-scorched and badly injured Brick come in.

“You’re still alive!” Glittery exclaimed.

“Do you think I would get smashed that easily?” said Brick smiling, but the smile faded quickly “Is there anything to do, here or somewhere else?”

“Go at that panel! More hands are always needed to control more cannons in such ships with little crews! But I don’t think we’ll hold on for long anyway”

Brick did as he was told, ignoring his injuries. Not long had passed when the ship was shaken again.

“Three front cannons not operational!” the computer announced.

Glittery and Brick watched a Maelstrom spaceship appear from above them. They knew what would follow and stayed still waiting for their fate. They even saw a laser cannon turn around to aim at them.

Then, something even more unexpected happened. The part of the ship with the cannon exploded. At the same time the computer announced: “Engines 1 and 3 operational. Spaceship able to move!”

Glittery immediately set the starship moving and then they saw their saviour. The Nexus Imaginer was flying next to them. Most probably, it had attacked the enemy spaceship and repaired their engines. They had both forgotten that they were not alone in this battle. . .

### Chapter 22: The Battle of the Mid-Wall

Magical screamed as he crossed the air towards the Paradox and the Venture League right subgroup. He had just been hit by a Stromling Gorilla Invader. Once those gigantic and intimidating creatures arrived the Maelstrom started winning. Magical fell on the ground between a Sorcerer and a Space Marauder.

“Be careful!” the voice of the Marauder was heard through the helmet “You could be smashed that way!”

The two Paradox minifigures helped him get up and then they continued battling. Magical had dropped one of his swords at the process of flying in the air, so he grabbed his big round shield, which he had at his back until then. With it he moved forward and hit two Stromling Knights throwing them down. With regret he saw the Gorilla that had hit him struck again. The Bat Lord and the Mosaic Jester that were at his sides before jettisoned in the air like him. The Bat Lord even fell a little further from where Magical had fallen.

“Will you stop coming?” the Marauder said as he helped the minifigure get up.

*Those Gorillas need to be stopped or they’ll crush the whole army*, Magical thought. He would have tried to get back to the Gorilla that had hit him. However, another Gorilla appeared in front of him right at that moment. He watched the beast’s arm get down as if in slow motion and barely had time to duck.

He blocked the attack of the other arm with his shield, but he felt his whole body being shaken and stepped back a few times. Even his sight got a little bit blurry. He walked forward again a bit dizzily and looked at his enemy. The huge ape was already ready to unleash its next attack.

Then, suddenly a rope-like purple thing wrapped around the Maelstrom Being’s wrist. It was a rope, but it seemed to be made of Maelstrom and started from the staff of the aforementioned Sorcerer. The man pulled his staff and forced the creature to lower its arm. Magical did not lose the opportunity. He quickly ascended the arm of the monster and jumping he gave it a blow at the heart, the weak spot of the Stromling Gorillas. The brute grabbed him with its other arm, but did not have time to do anything else. It, then, fell down and smashed.

Magical got out of the pile of bricks and approached the Sorcerer.

“Good trick! I didn’t know Paradox Sorcerers could do that!” he said.

“They can’t! I combined some actual sorcery with Paradox stuff!” the man replied “Come on! There are more!”

They started running towards the centre of the battle where two more Stromling Gorillas were. However, they hadn’t covered much distance before someone shouting: “DUCK!” fell on them making them fall on the ground. Barely a second later a huge boulder sent by a third Gorilla flew over them.

The minifigure getting up and helping them up, too, was revealed to be the Bat Lord from earlier.

“Let’s go on!” he said with his deep voice.

They continued their way, sometimes having to fight enemies attacking them and then they saw a quite sad event. The Mosaic Jester, who seemed to have reached the Gorillas first, had now somehow climbed to the Gorilla’s neck and pressing his shield on the creature’s neck made it fall down. He had probably jumped from somewhere to have the force to make the creature lose its balance and fall. However, the Gorilla, who was holding a female Nexus Knight in his right hand, grabbed the Jester before he could attack again. Forgetting the girl and leaving her, the Gorilla threw the Jester and he hit on the Wall. And he was no more… The woman, probably feeling grief for her saviour, ran to the beast’s heart and hit it with her sword.

Now they had almost reached the other Gorilla and the Bat Lord started running very quickly. They didn’t need long to realise he was using his speed boost. At some point he jumped and then his speed made him look like a mini purple-black cloud. And with that jump he reached the Gorilla’s heart and the speed of his jump was so great that the Gorilla smashed.

“Now, that’s amazing!” Magical commented.

They turned their heads to search for the remaining brute. However, it was just then that the last Gorilla was at that time falling down hit by many arrows and a flaming boulder. They sighed with relief. The danger of those creatures was gone for now.

Yet, Magical noticed that their number had been reduced a lot. He also noticed that the two armies that were at their sides before had now merged with their group creating a bigger mass.

“RETREAT!!!” Magical shouted and the fighters started getting in through the open gates, which the Maelstrom had not managed to approach, yet.

His own group went first, while the fighters of the two others stayed to defend the gates for some time.

“Won’t you come?!” the Sorcerer asked Magical; those two and the Bat Lord were the last ones of the group that had not gotten inside.

“I’ll stay here to defend the gates for as long as I can, so that others can get in!”

“But then you’ll stay outside! I’ll stay with you! Not leaving you alone!” the Bat Lord said.

“Me too!” the Sorcerer agreed.

“So be it!” Magical said with a way that showed he wasn’t planning on that happening.

The second group, the one that was similar to theirs had now started to go in. The group of the Greek-like soldiers had now made a half circle around the gate. The three minifigures started going forward, but one of the Hellenes Hoplitae stopped them.

“Where are you going? You should go inside!” he said.

“No, you should! We’re staying!” Magical replied.

“No, you shall not! The Hellenes Hoplitae do not give up a battle! We’re not going inside! With it or on it! We shall return with our shield, or on our shield, smashed in battle. You leave; save your lives!!!”

And the three minifigures, who were to become friends, realising that it was in the minifigures’ ideology not to leave a battle, the minifigures turned around to go inside. And with a last sad look back, they silently said their goodbye to those minifigures who were going to sacrifice themselves for all the others. . .

### Chapter 23: Myrror and Mardolf

Myrror was running on the wall. He was searching for Mardolf the Orange to tell him the information he had acquired during his mission. The battle of the Mid-Wall had started and actually it seemed it was reaching its end now. He was passing over the Eastern Gate now and could see many minifigures retreating through it. He hoped that they would all be safe, but this was not his concern and soon forgot about it.

Arrows and Maelstrom Boulders were being launched against them, but the Imagination bubble around them did not let any Maelstrom pass, thus stopping them. Only some occasional not infected projectiles got through. As he left the Gate behind him one such boulder flew above them, but did not hit the wall or the people on it.

Myrror, for a brief moment, looked at his side towards the Maelstrom Mob. He was surprised to see that he could only see the forces of Chaos and that the Outer Curtain Wall had been almost completely destroyed. He could only see a small grey mass somewhere inside the purple sea that was lying around the Wall.

However, he immediately looked in front of him, because on the crowded Wall you had to be careful not to push anyone; there was danger of someone falling.

Soon he reached a place where there were so many people that he had to stop running.

“Please, let me pass! I have important information to bring to Mardolf the Orange! Let me pass! It’s very important! Make way!” he bellowed.

Those of them that had no visual contact with the enemy to shoot projectiles and those who held melee weapons stepped aside as much as they could, but Myrror still had to go slowly. Then, suddenly: “Myrror, the Nexus-Forcer?! Is that really ya?”.

“They haven’t called me like that for years! You must be one of those four kids!” he said as he turned around to face whoever had talked.

It was Sarah Darkon! She was still intact, because she hadn’t had a chance to fight, yet. She had been put at the Inner Wall. She was wearing the gear that Shadow had made her about six months ago.

“If ya mean the four from Yorkanton, ya ain’t wrong!” she said.

“I would love to talk to you, but I have an important thing to do!” Myrror replied.

“Just tell me that: Have you seen Shadow or the others at all?” Sarah asked.

“Shadow?! You mean John? He’s not smashed, don’t worry! I also saw Tony preparing for the battle of the Mid-Wall, but I guarantee nothing about his safety! But I haven’t seen Kate anywhere” he told her quickly.

No sooner had he finished talking than he vanished a vacuum had appeared in the crowd of people. Sarah wasn’t relieved at all to hear the last words of Myrror and her worry grew.

Meanwhile, Myrror was running again. Now, he was approaching the next tower. He passed among some Nexus Archers and some snipers and then got inside the building. There were some people inside it, too. He found the stairway leading to the top and started ascending.

Myrror walked the last of the steps and finally saw the minifigure he was looking for. With his orange robes and his orange hat, his white beard and his silver hair, his light-blue-crystalled staff at the hand Mardolf the Orange was standing at the top of the tower watching the masses of Maelstrom surrounding the town.

“You’ve come, Myrror!” the old man said with a voice that did not reveal the wizard’s feelings “I was worried you might not be able to reach us!”

“The answer is affirmative, master! There are! I am afraid they could be a threat to us! I barely escaped!” Myrror answered.

The Enchanter looked at Myrror. His face was already frowned, but not it frowned even more. It was full of wrinkles and it was never more apparent how old he was.

“Indeed, Myrror! But what I am afraid of is when they will be a threat to us!” the wise man responded.

“What’s that?” exclaimed one of the other people that were there and he pointed to the sky, where a purple spot had appeared.

“Is it a bird?”

“Is it a plane?”

“No! It’s Superman!”

The spot was growing more and more, until it was not a spot anymore. And it continued getting bigger. It actually was still afar, but it had already become quite big. Mardolf was the first to figure out what it was.

“No, my lads! It is not any of these! It’s dragons!”

“A dragon? It must be a very big one!” Myrror said.

“No, Myrror! Not a dragon! A whole herd of them!”. . .

### Chapter 24: Dragons, Lightning and then the Battle

Strange Odd Shadow was using an Imagination Rocket Launcher firing at the several beings below. The outer armies had now retreated and the Maelstrom creatures were trying to break through the Wall –or ascend it. Yet, the Energy Shield was still working well and it didn’t let them pass even if they reached the top of their ladders.

Suddenly, Shadow heard a terrifying loud roar. While he looked around to find the source of the sound, which he recognised to be a dragon’s roar, he thought of Katie and how she could be in danger. Finally, she found the dragon. But it was not only one. A whole herd of huge Dragon Invaders (or even stronger kinds of Maelstrom Dragons), including about fifty of them, was flying around the Energy Shield. Led by the biggest dragon Shadow had ever seen (with the exception of Chrysoclepht), each and every dragon was breathing fire against the Imagination Shield. Yet, the Shield was still going strong.

The dragons, which many people targeted, passed them and after a little they heard one more roar. Shadow resumed launching rockets at the Maelstromlings when with a poof a Maelstrom Sorcerer appeared next to him. Realising that some of the creatures could get past the Shield with not much difficulty, he got a bit more worried. He had thought they could do some more damage to the enemy, before they would have to defend themselves again.

Shadow hit the Sorcerer on the head with his launcher, not risking launching a rocket in front of him. While the enemy stood up, Shadow grabbed his Ice Saw and attacked again. This time the Sorcerer was more prepared and he blocked the blow with his magic. Shadow struck again and this time his attack was blocked by the staff. The Sorcerer struck back with a blast of Maelstrom. Shadow was unable to dodge it and was hit on the stomach. However, his armour protected him. He looked for a second on his belly to make sure he was alright, but that was all the Darkling needed. Shadow felt the staff forced upon his head before he had even looked up again. The magically enhanced hit made him fall down and caused him dizziness.

Yet, the stroke of another person found the Sorcerer unprepared. His pieces fell down and a hand helped Shadow up. His dizziness stopped and Shadow managed to see clearly. “Blood-Drinking” Vampire Dracula was standing before him. Dracula was a vampire that never had the courage to actually try to feed on minifigures, although he (unsuccessfully) tried to scare them from times to times. Yet, the pessimistic Dracula who felt pathetically about himself was gone at the second. Dracula now seemed quite more prestigious. One could say that it was the Bat Lord gear he was wearing that made the difference. However, this was not the case. It was mostly his face. He looked a lot more proud of himself. Ever since he had got this gear, Dracula’s fighting skills had improved dramatically and he was feeling much better.

“Hello Shadow! Long time, no see!” he said with a smile.

“Hello Dracula! You look… great! Thank you by the way!” Shadow responded.

“You’re welcome! According to my family traditions this suit is the first Bat Lord suit that was ever made, passed over from generation to generation from the first Bat Lord to me! It’s better than the ones Nexus Force makes, because it is authentic made by actual Bat Lords, either it is the first one or not! And it has a cape, unlike the others!!!” Dracula explained.

Shadow noticed that it actually was quite old and it did look a bit different from the common Bat Lord gear. He also saw the black cape with a red bat on it.

Then, Shadow noticed that other people were fighting Sorcerers, too. It seemed they had broken into their lines.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

A chariot carried by two huge Maelstrom Lizards was passing through the Maelstrom Mob. The driver was flagellating the Lizards to go faster and faster, while everyone stepped aside in the sight of the chariot. Whoever was not fast enough was overrun. Everyone seemed to look the chariot in fear.

The chariot was now quite close to the wall. The herd of the Dragons was now flying above the part of the wall in front of them.

“Slower!” said the man, who was standing behind the driver “It seems that the Dragons need some help! Time to turn the tides!”

Then, the man raised his staff and lightning was launched by it. The lightning hit the Imagination Energy Shield and from that place electricity (both Maelstrom and Imagination) came out for some seconds. Then, Maelstrom seemed to have won, because the electricity stopped and at the place where the Shield had been struck a hole appeared. It started growing more and more and at the edges light blue had turned purple. The lightning free to pass through the hole reached the other side of the Shield and soon created a hole there, too. Holes were now growing at several places of the Shield, becoming big and then merging into bigger holes. And soon there was no Shield. It had been destroyed… by the Darkitect!!!

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The minifigures on the Wall watched the Shield dissolve in horror. They had all expected and counted on its lasting more. Suddenly, all the arrows and boulders could pass over the Wall and the air was filled with them. At the same time the fifty Dragons started attacking the minifigures on the wall and inside the town. Due to the people’s initial shock, several intruders already had jumped on the walls. And with all that happening around him, Shadow finally saw Katie. . .

### Chapter 25: Mardolf’s achievements

Myrror had left a while ago and Mardolf had informed the leaders and some others of the news Myrror had brought, when the Enchanter watched the shield fade.

“There is a power amongst those mindless creatures, stronger than one can imagine! And I fear the worst!” he said to no one in particular, but he never explained what was the worst.

Like everyone throughout the Wall, they were immediately under attack. Many arrows were being launched against them and some people’s pieces fell on the floor lifeless. Mardolf hit his staff at the floor and the incoming volley of arrows was stopped, bouncing on the air on an invisible obstacle. They only had seconds before the next volley would come, but Mardolf did not need longer to strike back. Many light blue tongues of fire were conjured out of his staff and were sent like arrows against their attackers. Those, however, were better than arrows, because they chased their target and did not stop when they hit them, but they went on to smash more. There were few ways to make them stop with the Wizard not being willing to stop them.

The next volley of projectiles came, but it had much less arrows. Other archers must have been smashed, while others must have been trying to save their lives.

Mardolf did not stop there. He proceeded to cast a complex and difficult spell, which also needed much energy. After making many complicated and weird moves with his hands and staff and then saying some words, he raised his staff, whose top was now glowing and then a small tornado appeared where the Maelstrom creatures were.

Yet, the tornado was draining a lot of Mardolf’s energy, so he ended it soon. Even if he was younger he wouldn’t be able to sustain it much longer without losing too much energy. After the twister disappeared, for a moment there was a vacuum where the gale-force winds had struck. However, it was filled again with more Maelstrom soldiers. Fortunately, the arrows had now spaced now.

And when they thought they were going to do better now, the whole tower was shaken hit by a flaming boulder. It didn’t cause much damage –at least not enough for them to be in danger. However, while that happened three Stromling Sorcerers appeared amongst them. Mardolf, instantly, started fighting one of them.

Sparks, similar to electricity, and jets of fire started colliding sent by the staffs of the two magic-users. In the start no one seemed to win, for the attack of the one blocked the attack of the other and whenever they stopped attacking the new attack would come immediately, but the same would happen. Then, the Sorcerer changed tactics and conjured many knives, which were launched against Mardolf. Mardolf transformed them into pigeons, which started flying away. Yet, before they were away they had become eagles attacking the Sorcerer. He turned them into snakes, but before they could attack they were transfigured into smoke. Then, the smoke became fire, which surrounded the Sorcerer and smashed him.

Looking around, he saw that the two other Sorcerers, apparently being weaker, had already been smashed. It was then that Mardolf felt a mental attack from a presence which was still afar.

“Encha, you’ve got a lot of audacity to challenge me like that!” Mardolf said to no one in particular while he easily spurned the attack.

He quickly went on the offensive sending a similar attack to his enemy. The mental battle had begun, the one wizard trying to invade into the other’s mind. Then, Encha the Sorcerer appeared, as if he jumped all the way from the base of the tower, in front of him. Sparks and flames started being conjured and launched against Mardolf as Encha landed on the top of the tower. Anyone who was between the two magicians stepped aside to let them fight more easily, but also to avoid being hit themselves. An electricity whip was now starting from the top of Encha’s scepter. Mardolf blocked the whip with his own scepter and pulling it the whip was cut in the half and faded. Encha kept attacking with a great variety of strikes and his attacks were so quick that Mardolf only had time to defend himself and not to strike back. Anyone watching the incredible battle would wonder how the old man even managed to do that. Sparks were glanced, flames blazed out, weapons and animals were transfigured, explosions occurred and still the two magical fighters went on.

Then suddenly, while Encha was ready to attack anew, he stopped moving and stayed completely still. Only his eyes were moving and they were looking at Mardolf with fear. All this time the mental battle was still going on and Mardolf had won. If he wasn’t concentrated on that, Mardolf could have done even better than just defending himself. But he had picked to win in this way.

“You shouldn’t have challenged me Encha!” Mardolf said strictly.

Then, the scepter of the Maelstrom Being smashed to smithereens and dust started coming out of Encha. Those watching saw that the Sorcerer’s arms started diminishing. The dust wasn’t coming out of him; he was turning into it and some wind was blowing it away. Soon, the whole body of Encha had become dust and then he was no more.

One more boulder hit the tower and it started tilting. Mardolf knew it was going to fall, so he started using his magic to keep it standing for a bit more.

“Evacuate the tower! It’s not going to stand for long!” Mardolf ordered the rest and they obeyed.

Sweat started rolling on Mardolf’s forehead and cheeks as he tried to keep the construction in place. His hair and beard became wet due to it and so did his clothes. The last minifigure was now gone, but Mardolf had to make sure that they had left the lower levels of the tower, too. Some more minutes of agony passed and then Mardolf thought they must have left.

The enchanter raised his staff again and the whole tower until the place where it connected with the Wall rived from it. The tower with Mardolf still on its top was now hovering above all others. It went forward for a little and then Mardolf stopped sustaining the spell. The tower fell and crashed onto the Maelstrom. . .

### Chapter 26: Sarah’s Achievements

Sarah watched the tower flying and then crushing onto the Maelstrom Mob. She was fighting a Dark Knight, however, and did not have the opportunity to watch for long. The Dark Knight took advantage of her momentary distraction to slash at her arm. Sarah was not able to block the blow with either of her katanas. The pain, however, angered her and motivated her to fight more fiercely. She quickly slashed both her katanas against her opponent disarming him. She swirled and kicked the Knight forcing him to fall down. While he was still down she gave the final blow.

After finally defeating her enemy, she looked around and through the several people, many of which were taller than her –for she wasn’t very tall– she made out some Siege Towers approaching. However, they weren’t the usual Maelstrom Siege Towers they had to face at the Outer Curtain Wall. They were Skeleton-carrying Siege Towers, the ones that Lord Garmadon was using for his army. There were four of those. However, Garmadon’s Skeletons managed to ascend on the Wall before the Towers had arrived. The Ladders, previously used by the Stromling and Dark Knights they had been fighting until then, were now being used by the Skulkin army.

The first waves of them were easily defeated, for the Skeletons were never particularly strong. However, they had the advantage of never being defeated forever. Their parts always slowly came nearer to each other in order to rejoin one another and form the Skeletons’ bodies again.

They kept coming more and more, increasingly frequently. The fighters were not as efficient against them as they were in the start. Some of them started being defeated or smashed. That caused another problem, too. No one had time to deal with the approaching Siege Towers. Sarah managed to reach the front line and started hitting the Skeletons with her katana. After some blows each of them fell to pieces. However, before they rebuilt Sarah used a plan to stop that from happening. She grabbed a piece of theirs, preferably a leg and tossed it towards the inner side of the Wall. She then threw the rest of the pieces or as many of them she could grab quickly at the other side. In that way, the leg couldn’t rejoin with the rest of the body, setting the Skeletons unable to fight. Soon others copied her seeing that her plan was quite clever.

While the Skeletons started reducing, the Skulkin Towers had now almost reached the Wall and now nothing was going to stop them. Even one which had been damaged by some flaming boulders would reach them. And then the first one of them reached the place shaking them with its gangplank. The Skeletons started laughing evilly, mischievously and madly.

Skeletons were released from the Tower, which was very near Sarah. However, they were led by a Ninja unknown to them until then. He was wearing ninja Gi, pants and hood at orange colours. His weapon was a silver nunchaku. The Ninja, even though the Nexus Force did not know of them, was one of the four Dark Ninja of Garmadon. The man, after the Stone Wars\* had decided that the Skeletons were not enough to fight the Masters of Spinjitsu, so he had found four Ninja and trained them to become the rivals of Wu’s four apprentices\*\*. Following the Dark Ninja were two Stromling Ninja. Those were a rare sight, so everyone was surprised to see them. However, they shouldn’t. In that battle the Maelstrom had brought all its Forces to destroy the Nexus Force.

However surprising the appearance of those three Ninja was, none of the fighters lost any time and they attacked them immediately. Sarah found herself engaged in a battle with one of the Stromling Ninja. He was holding two daggers and fought with those. It struck first, but Sarah blocked the blow easily and so did she with the second one that came a second later. She had now a second or two to strike back and she used the chance well, performing a complicated move with her katana, which ended up in disarming the Maelstroming’s one dagger. That gave her a great advantage for her katana was much better a weapon than the Ninja’s one weapon. It attacked once more, but Sarah dodged the attack. She slashed her katana, but the Ninja somersaulted and landed behind Sarah. Yet, Sarah quick at her reflexes quickly changed her slash into a blow behind her back and managed a hit at the other’s back. Her opponent was surprised to realise it had been hit for Stromling Ninja were not used to such annoyances. Sarah exploited its upset to attack again. However, it did manage to dodge the hit. It then jumped and swirling it kicked Sarah, who did not manage to dodge the attack, at the cheek. The force made her fall down, but she took advantage of her place to kick the Ninja at the legs throwing him down as well. Yet, before she was even up, a blue electric tornado had passed over the Ninja leaving only its pieces behind.

Sarah looked around to find the tornado, but instead she saw the man in the light blue ninja clothes that was spinning causing the tornado. Jay, the Master of Lightning had arrived in order to fight the Dark Ninja and the Skeletons. As if everything had been prepared, at that time a Nexus Knight fell down knocked out revealing the Dark Ninja. The two Masters of Spinjitsu, apprentices of the rivaling brothers, looked at each other for a bit and then they both started spinjitsuing. The two tornadoes, the orange and the light blue one collided into a two-coloured one. The connection of Spinjitsu tornadoes of two enemies was a rare even –maybe even unseen. The orange-blue tornado was one slower than the usual ones, enabling outsiders to make out the figures of each opponent. It was very unstable in its diameter for the two minifigures, who had probably caught each other’s arms or something, did not stay still at all. The tornado couldn’t stay at one point either making random moves. Everyone stepped back, making them place in order not to be hit by them.

Then, at one point somehow the two Ninjas’ nunchakus got tangled and they got afar from each other connected through their nunchakus (Jay after the techno-blade was using nunchaku again, a silver one not the golden weapon\*\*\*). At that point it was very easy to know who was who and they were going slow enough for Sarah to try to interfere. She got a shuriken out her sleeve and after waiting for a bit, she launched it. She hit her target precisely. The Ninja was hit at the arm grabbing the nunchaku the pain making him let go of his weapon. The centrifugal force caused him to jettison onto a Venture League Daredevil. He quickly jumped up again and returned to the fight with Jay, who had left the tangled weapons down. They started fighting with many kicks, punches, somersaults, jumps, swirls, dodges and blocks. Sarah quickly ran to the Ninja’s aid. Once she had reached them she struck the Dark Ninja hard on the head, but not with the edge of her katana. And so he fell on the floor knocked out.

She did not hit with the edge, for she did not like smashing minifigures. She remembered lots of conversations with Shadow (and Kate and Magical) about that subject. Shadow was always saying smashing of minifigures is completely unreasonable and it should be avoided if possible. He had certainly persuaded the others, too. However, even if it hadn’t been for him, it is easy for no one to smash and they’d probably have similar ideas anyway.

However, the other Siege Towers had already arrived some time ago. From them, many Skeletons, 6 more Stromling Ninja and the rest of the Dark Ninja had disembarked. Sarah conjured a rope out of her backpack and tied the Dark Ninja, for she knew he would soon wake. Then, she prepared for more fighting. . .

\*The Stone Wars are some events of the Ninjago storyline I have prepared in mind and that I am intending to write at some point. When I do, I recommend that you read it, because it will be a bit connected to this series.

\*\*The idea of the 4 Apprentices of Garmadon was of my friend’s and there was a whole story with them. Yet, he is not writer material and couldn’t write it. Although there is a bit of it posted by me somewhere in the boards.

\*\*\*The whole Lego Universe thing is (in my storyline) happening after the end of the Ninjago Series. How exactly we pass from the one to the other will be explained at the aforementioned Ninjago storyline.

### Chapter 27: The Meeting at last

Strange Odd Shadow was trying to fight his way towards Kate, who had caused him so many worries during the whole battle. However, there were many enemies between them. Many Electro-Sword Stromling Invaders had intruded in the Wall and it seemed that the number of Nexus-Forcers at the particular point had diminished a lot.

Shadow entered the crowd of Maelstromlings. Instantly, there were two Electro-Swords (I shall call them that for convenience) attacking him. Shadow blocked the first blows with his shield in which he had put a thin layer of Nigrium, which was insulating material. Thus, the electricity of their swords did not electrify him. He had put a layer of Nigrium in his brick-hand anyway.

Shadow hit the one of the two with his ice saw on the head. He chose the head, for it was the only part of their body that never electrified if you touched it. The Electro-Sword stepped back dizzily and fell down. Shadow gave the final blow with an arrow sent by his ice saw changed into a crossbow again. He turned to face the other Electro-Sword just in time to see it hit him on the side. He felt a stitch, but nothing more due to his armour and the clothes he wore under it.

“Cloth is insulating, you stupid creature!!!” he exclaimed and proceeded to kick it.

It was forced back by his foot and it unexpectedly smashed. Once its pieces fell onto the floor, Shadow saw a person he knew, but he wasn’t sure whether to consider a friend. They had only met once anyway.

“Nigerequitemultimum\*!!!” Shadow bellowed “What are you doing here?”

The Last of the Black Knights was standing with his black sword extended, that showing that he was the one that had smashed the beast. He was as always wearing his black armour made of the rare rock Shadow had used in order to insulate his hand and shield.

“Greetings Umbra!” the man’s voice came a bit muffled through the helmet, whilst he grabbed the wing of a Grumpy Darkling and throwing on the floor “I have decided that protecting the Power Within the Crystal would be at vain if the Maelstrom defeated all its other enemies!”

“Well, it’s good to see you, but I need to pass through this crowd to go find Kate! Farewell, then!” Shadow replied while he dodged the sword of an Electro-Sword.

“Let me help you!” said the Black Knight, who was a clever man and could see at Shadow’s face more than he actually said.

“Thanks!” Shadow told him, while he blocked another attack from the same enemy.

The Black Knight then hit the said enemy with his shield. The hit was so powerful that the Maelstromling flew away from the wall and fell. He then proceeded to start walking in the crowd slashing and hitting any enemy that he found in his way, creating an opening for Shadow to pass. Shadow stared for a bit, admiring the man’s talent.

“Come on! Before it closes!” Nigerequitemultimum exclaimed turning around and seeing Shadow hadn’t moved.

Shadow did so and followed the man, who was now again fighting to help Shadow. Soon they got out of that crowded area and Shadow was again able to search around for Katie. Fortunately, she was still there fighting with some Stromling Pirate Invaders. She hadn’t moved much. The two minifigures saw her and made for her. They had to fight some Stromling Knights, which had gotten much fewer since the beginning of the battle, but they quickly passed through that obstacle.

Shadow shot some arrows at the Pirates before they reached them. All of the Pirates looked at him and so did Kate. Her face was suddenly lighted and she smiled like Shadow had done when he saw Katie. Soon they arrived and the Black Knight was very efficient at helping to smash the Pirates. Once that job was done, a panting Katie said: “Hello Shadow! Hello Nigre-keete-ultimate! Thank you!”

“You’re most welcome” the deep voice of the man said and he showed no reaction to the very bad pronunciation of his name.

Afterward, he fended off to fight some Darklings that had just appeared from a ladder. The two spouses looked at each other gladly and then they said simultaneously “Thank brick, you’re okay!”. Then, with a smile Shadow said: “Look, Kate! I’ve got a plan, which, if it works, will improve our situation very much! Are you ready to follow me anywhere for that, or will I have to do this alone?”

“Shadow, you know that wherever you go, I’ll always want to come after you, even if you don’t want me to follow!” the girl responded.

“Good! Because I didn’t want to do this alone! Even the idea itself scares me!”. . .

### Chapter 28: Myrror’s achievements

Myrror raised his staff and the ladder closest to him broke. He was ready to do the same with another ladder when he saw a Siege Tower approaching the Wall. He launched an energy blast, but it missed.

“Brick it!” he exclaimed.

After accomplishing his mission and informing Mardolf, he was now just fighting at the Wall like all the others.

“Watch out!” someone bellowed “FALL DOWN!!!”

Myrror turned around to see two dragons flying towards him. Everyone else on the Wall fell down to avoid the rage of the dragons. Yet, Myrror stayed still and he just stretched his arms at the height of his shoulders. Then, he waited. The two dragons were coming with outstanding speed. Just one second before the dragons reached him, Myrror brought his hands together. And while it seemed that the one of the two dragons would just open its mouth and would eat him it was just repelled by an invisible shield. It moved towards the right hitting on the other dragon, which annoyed flew higher and fended off.

However, the first dragon enraged by that turned around and charged against Myrror again. It started breathing fire, but the man conjured water, which prevented the fire touching him. The next moment Myrror had to jump to dodge the front foot with claws of the dragon. Myrror quickly unsheathed his sword made of High Silver, a kind of silver better than the usual one. He had crafted the weapon himself. With it he slashed at the dragon’s side before it could turn to face him. The creature looked at him angrily and roared. However, that gave Myrror to send an energy blast inside its mouth. The beast shrieked in agony. Before the pain had even diminished arrows were launched against it and it roared once again. More people now approached and attacked with their weapons. The brute breathed flames again and smashed two minifigures. However, that worsened the pain at its mouth and it didn’t try again. A slash at the neck by Myrror was the final blow. The dragon fell down lifeless.

Myrror searched for the Siege Tower he had seen before in order to continue what the dragons interrupted. It was not almost in front of him ready to place its gangplank on the Wall. The Imagination Blast he sent that time hit the target and the Tower’s side caught fire, while flaming pieces of wood blasted off towards many directions. The second attack was more accurate hitting the Tower near the centre and having a similar result with the first one. The next second the gangplank loudly fell onto the Wall’s floor. The worst kind of all the Electro-Stromlings came out of the Tower. They were named Electro-Flail Stromlings and they were very deadly. Their weapon-arm was a flail, electricity running through its ball. Instead of a chain the ball was connected to the rest of the arm with some kind of electricity-chain. At the other hand they were holding an electrifying net. Their head was similar to the one of Mace Stromlings. Electricity also occasionally appeared to run through several parts of their body.

Five of those terrible creatures disembarked on the Wall, just before Myrror sent one last blast that destroyed the upper part of the Tower. The unfortunate minifigures whom they found in their way were smashed either by their flails or by their nets. Myrror quickly approached them to face them. One of those noticed him immediately. It raised its flail and swirled it ready to hit, but Myrror threw his sword at the Maelstromling. It lowered its weapon and stepped back. Myrror then struck it with his staff on the head forcing it out of the wall. He only grabbed his sword first before it fell with the Darkling. He felt a slight flick when he did so, but it wasn’t anything important.

However, the next moment he felt the pain of electrocution much worse than the mere flick. He fell down the parts of his bodies flouncing uncontrollably. The pain started from his back and spread through his whole body. He was certain that he opened his mouth and screamed, but he did not remember hearing his scream. Finally, a few seconds after it all started, though it seemed like centuries, the pain stopped. He still felt some pain generally, but especially at the back where the flail had hit him. There certainly was a bruise there. The Stromling would finish him off then, but for another minifigure, which came out of nowhere speedily and struck the Darkling with her sword. She hit again and again, some of the times being electrocuted (though that electrocution by the body was nowhere near comparable to the one caused by the flail). Myrror stayed lying there panting. He realised that the Maelstromling must have been smashed when he heard the sound of pieces falling on the floor.

The Nexus Knight that had saved him also panting due to her electrocutions appeared above him. She offered her hand in order to help him get up. The man with much effort raised his own hand and grabbed hers. After standing up, he dizzily tried not to fall using his staff as a brace. He put his hand in a pocket of his mantle, grabbed a Super Notion Potion and drunk it. That improved his state a little. He was ready to fight again; or at least to try.

Another Electro-Flail Stromling had just been smashed being the target of many arrows. So, there were only two left. Myrror located the one of the two and he started Spinjitsu-ing to defeat it. Indeed Myrror had learnt the art of Spinjitsu a long time ago. He collided with the Stromling and fended off in order not to be electrocuted. Then, he charged again. Before he could repeat the attack, however, the Stromling used its net to trap the Nexus-Forcer. Myrror stopped spinning feeling his body being electrocuted again. It wasn’t as terrible as the first time, but it still was agonising. The girl from before came to his aid again. She cut the net with her sword stopping the powering of electricity. The minifigure deprived of any power to even stand up just whispered a few words, the crystal of his staff glowing, and the Stromling exploded. The spell drawing almost all the energy he had left, he nearly fainted.

Without Myrror’s realising what was happening around him, the Knight grabbed his head and put a vial in his mouth making him drink the liquid inside it. The results were instant with Myrror feeling his body filling with energy and his eyes opening widely. It had burnt his throat, but he was now awake, so it was worth it. He got up and looked at the girl surprised.

“Thank you! But what was that?!” he said.

“A traditional drink we make here to give to the wounded and the very tired when they have to fight!” she said.

They were going to fight the last of the Stromlings, if it hadn’t been for the very loud deafening noise that was heard then as if something huge had crashed on the ground. At the same time the whole ground and the town with it shook as if it had been an earthquake. The noise and the shaking were repeated; again and again. They had a particular tempo, as if someone was…

“Walking!” Myrror whispered to himself.

He looked around. No one had noticed until then, but a fog had been formed a little further from the ruined Outer Wall, hiding the horizon. And then the source of the terrifying sound was revealed coming out of the fog. A huge gigantic minifigure appeared. It was a Stromling Giant. . .

### Chapter 29: Nigerequitemultimum’s achievements

Nigerequitemultimum watched the two minifigures join each other joyfully. However, he did not stay with them meaning to fight some more.

He instantly went to the place where a Siege Tower had stopped. Stromling Knights were pouring out of it. The fighters there had a problem maintaining them. The Black Knight forced himself through two Daredevils and into the first line of the battle.

Stromling Knights immediately charged against him, but they did the foolish thing to come running. Their momentum contributed in his strikes being worse for them. The enemies virtually fell on his sword and shield turning around as if somersaulting and then falling and smashing.

Soon though, they realised their mistake and started coming towards him more slowly. The Last of the Black Knights slashed his sword against one of the three Knights that were fighting him now, while he blocked the strike of another one just before dodging the slash of the third one. The first Darkling blocked the hit, but it was then kicked on the leg making it back off for a while. In the meantime, the Black Knight slammed his shield against the face of the second Knight and attempted a blow at the side of the other. The latter barely blocked it while the first one returned. The Black Knight exploited the stepping back of the Knight hit by the shield in order to jump onto the empty space dodging two more attacks. The Knight who was now in front of him barely had the time to look at him before it was smashed.

Nigerequitemultimum now had the two other Knights at his side. He stooped in order to avoid being hit and then slashed at the legs of the Knight closer to him. The Maelstromling fell on the ground, while the other jumped over its fallen comrade so that it could strike back. Yet, in its momentum it wasn’t able to prevent being hit on the head by a headbutt. It fell midair almost onto the other Knight, who was now getting up. The Black Knight gave the final blow at the latter, who was a bit baffled by the situation and then finished off the last one, who was still on the floor.

In that way, the Black Knight fought and smashed many Stromling Knights and a few Stromling Archers that attempted to disembark. He found it very weird that he was fighting together with the people he had been taught that were his enemies. Of course, a long time had passed since there was anyone to refer to them as enemies and he had had much time to think that they indeed could not be opponents anymore with the presence of Maelstrom threatening all of them. However, what people are taught when they are young isn’t easily unlearnt.

While the Black Knight had fought exceptionally until then, then a challenge came that would not have to do with the physical power of his enemies or their craftsmanship. It had to do with the man’s psychology. It is easy to fight strangers and one can smash unknown Maelstrom beasts with no difficulty. However, how can one fight their own family, no matter how deformed they are? For after there were no more Stromling Knights to come out of the Siege Tower, Dark Knights followed the fallen Darklings. Dark Knights, who were infected Black Knights; Dark Knights, who were his lost family, his lost friends, his lost people…

Nigerequitemultimum stayed still, petrified and unable to do anything. He couldn’t even raise his sword. What was he going to? He couldn’t flee from a battle and dishonor himself. But he couldn’t fight either. Was he just going to stay there and wait for his fate?

Someone shouted at him, but the Black Knight wasn’t paying attention. After he had seen the Dark Knights it was like no sound could reach his ears. A moment later, he felt pain, one of the Dark Knights having slashed his sword on his chest. His panoply was not penetrated, but the sword came with force and it had certainly caused a bruise to form. Another strike at the head forced him to fall on his knees. The Dark Knight struck again, this time at his back. The Black Knight still shocked could not strike back.

But then, the sight of another Darkling shocked Nigerequitemultimum even more. He had just disembarked and was walking slowly following the ten Dark Knights who had come before him. His armour was black, but it was the black one would find on the body of a Maelstromling, like of the Dark Knights’, and it had some areas that had Maelstrom Aura. His long and broad sword, half with aura and half not, had runes on it. The shield and breastplate had the same insignia with the ones of the Black Knight. He was wearing not helmet, just a stone crown. His face similar to the one of the Stromlings’ had two evil glowing red eyes. It was a minifigure with which he was very familiar, despite all the changes caused by the infection or the time that had passed since the last time he had seen him. For that man was the infected form of the Nigerrex, King of the Black Knights; and his father…

The Last of the Black Knights had then a flashback: *A little boy was running in a hallway towards his father. His father was talking to his counselor and they had some scrolls opened, which they were looking at while discussing something that seemed to be very important by the serious look on their faces. The child finally reached the father while bellowing: “Dad! Dad! I did it! I finally did it! I shot the arrow and it passed through all of the five holes of the axes!”*

*The father looked at him with a strict look. He didn’t like to be called in such a casual way in front of other people, especially noblemen.*

*“What have I told you, Filiorex?” he said strictly.*

*The boy looked resentful for calling him like that: “I am sorry, Nigerrex! I truly am! I will not repeat the same mistake!”*

*Nigerrex, who was indeed the King of Black Knights, thought that this was enough and in a milder tone he said: “Filiorex, your achievement is great and it will be celebrated in time. However, we have some important matters to talk about with Decurius!”*

*The boy, Filiorex, noticed the scrolls and the armour his father was wearing for the first time since he had come. He looked surprised and sad.*

*“Are you going to war again?” Filiorex also seemed worried.*

*“Indeed we have to! The Knights of the Viridi Regnum have passed through our borders!”*

*“But you returned from the last battle just three weeks ago!”*

*“Filiorex, I think you have to go!” and the strictness of before seemed o reappear.*

The flashback only lasted a second in the Black Knight’s mind. Filiorex he was called before the Fall of the Niger Regnum. He remembered having to anxiously wait for his father’s return every time there was a war. Which was quite often. However, Nigerrex had never returned from the last war he had gone to. And that indeed gave him more power instead of worsening his state.

Nigerequitemultimum jumped out of reach of the aforementioned Dark Knight and towards the Dark Nigerrex. He was going to free him from the shackles of Maelstrom and let him go home, which was no longer in this world.

The Dark Nigerrex barely seemed surprised at all. He quickly blocked the first strike with his sword and so he did with the second one. He blocked one more hit with his shield and then struck back. The Black Knight blocked the attacks of his fathers, but barely and with each strike being forced a little towards his back. His arms were in pain due to the force used in each blow.

The Last of the Black Knights jumped in order to dodge another hit and while he started descending he kicked the Dark King on the face. His crown fell from his head and being a little taken aback he couldn’t block or dodge the next strike of his son. He was hit on the stomach where his armour cracked. Yet, he soon recovered and blocked the next blow. Nonetheless, the Black Knight had the upper hand. He struck repeatedly not letting his enemy hit again. His attacks were all unsuccessful, but they did their job. If he stopped rapidly attacking even for a second it could cost him everything. He was hoping for the Dark Nigerrex to get tired first or do something reckless that would give him the opportunity to hurt his enemy some more. Yet, it didn’t look like either was going to happen soon.

Minutes were passing and the father and son were still fighting in the same way. This ended though when a stupid, to the Black Knight’s point of view, minifigure decided he should help the Black Knight. It was a Venture League Adventurer. He charged against the Dark King and the next moment he found himself flying towards the opposite direction, the decisive look still on his face and then falling on the ground his pieces leaving each other. Nigerequitemultimum felt sorry for the minifigure, but he did not lose the chance. Reckless though it might have been, it actually was a helpful act.

Nigerrex’s attention was for one second distracted and so an opening appeared between his shield and sword. The Black Knight took advantage of it and the Dark King found himself struck at the stomach. He stepped back, while weakly trying to stay up and hold his weapons, which seemed much heavier now. The man with, invisible to anyone else, tears on his cheeks struck again and then gave the final blow. The pieces fell on the floor and the Black Knight noticed the crown he was wearing before, now smashed in half.

Nigerequitemultimum started then mourning. And he mourned like he had mourned when his Kingdom and his people had fallen. He mourned until he heard the rumble of the Giant. . .

### Chapter 30: Preparation for the Plan

“You’re scaring me with your words, Shadow! What is it that you want to do?” Kate asked.

“Oh, you’ll see! Will you wait for a second; I need to make a call in order to get permission for the mission!” Shadow replied.

“Since when do you ask for permission?!” Kate wondered surprised thinking of various cases in which Shadow didn’t even think for a second to ask whether he could do something.

“I have no idea what they could do seeing us set off with our rockets! We need to leave Castle Kingdom, you know!” Shadow told her.

However, before Shadow could press the buttons on his helmet in order to call a voice was heard right next to him: “Was that a Black Knight?!”

Shadow turned around to see Magical and a Venture League Daredevil he didn’t recognise. It was the Daredevil who had spoken.

“Indeed he was!” Shadow said looking at the minifigure curiously thinking his voice was familiar.

“But Black Knights got extinct years ago!” the Daredevil exclaimed.

“Yes, but one of them survived! Just one! That was him! But excuse my question, who are you?!” Shadow responded.

“Shadow! I’m Dragon!” the man answered.

“What?! Weren’t you an Iron Rider?!” Shadow exclaimed while Kate said as loudly as Shadow and in the same surprised way “You’re a Daredevil?!”

“Yes, I am an Iron Rider, but I have Daredevil gear, too! Currently, I am using my Daredevil gear!” Dragon told them with a tad irritated tone.

“Okaaay! Anyway, I have a phone call to make!” Shadow said and pressed some buttons on his helmet “Hello Doctor! It’s Shadow! I had an idea and I wanted to ask for your permission! I have recently built a device of massive disinfecting explosion. I was thinking some friends and I could go into space and use it to disinfect the come! … Really?! Good! Let’s hope all will go well!” and pressing another button he turned to his face “It’s okay! Now, we are going to the High Tower! We need to take off!”

“Are we going to disinfect the comet?!” Magical, who had met Dragon when he got back inside the town, asked.

“Sort of!” Shadow said a bit hesitantly.

“What does ‘sort of’ even mean?!” Kate exclaimed.

“You’ll see!”

Shadow looked around him. It was a long distance until the place where the Cross-Wall connected with the Curtain Wall. They wouldn’t easily get there on foot through the battle on the Wall. However, it was much easier using the Cross-Wall than going inside the town and reaching the Tower through it.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed all of a sudden “We’ll go with our rockets, and we won’t have to pass through the Wall!!! Brilliant! Follow me!”

Shadow got his rocket out and the rest of the minifigures did so, too, being however a bit confused. Yet, before Shadow had gotten in his rocket, which had now swelled, a voice with accent said: “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation! I’d like to come with you!”

Shadow looked and saw Dracula again. Even though the vampire didn’t say anything about it, the man didn’t think it could be a coincidence meeting him for a second time at so different places. Nevertheless he spoke not about it. But indeed he was right. Dracula had not lots of friends and so Shadow and his fellows, who had treated him with kindness, had earned his own kindness and interest. Thus, when Dracula saw Shadow trying to pass through the crowd of people and then leaving with the Black Knight, he decided to follow.

“Okay, Dracula! In this case, I shall let people come with me, so that I am sure I don’t stop! However, you’ll do as I say!” Shadow told the others.

The rest agreed, but no one was certain they would keep their word. They all knew Shadow could be very risky about himself and they couldn’t afford losing him.

Finally, they boarded their rockets and started flying (to the relief of many minifigures, who found there was not enough room for them and all those rockets on the Wall) towards the closest of the four Cross-Walls, Shadow leading them. It didn’t take more than a minute or so to reach their destination. They landed. Four minifigures were close to them fighting some Admiral Invaders trying to intrude in the Cross-Wall.

They rushed to help them and the pretty big company defeated them quickly. Once they were finished and to their surprise, they realised that one of the four minifigures was known to them.

“Quantum! What the brick?! How is it that we keep meeting people we know?!” Kate bellowed.

“You have expressed my own feelings as well, Kate!” Shadow said feeling an urge to face-palm.

“Ditto!” Magical said simply.

“This is like a freaking FFFFF party in the midst of the battle?!” were Dragon’s words.

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about! But where are you all going?” Quantum seemed confused.

“I’ll explain while we’re going there!” Shadow replied “Now, we need to rush!”

And so, they started running towards the other edge of the Wall, where the High Tower was standing. There they would find the Launch Pads. As they went, they saw minifigures rushing to the first line of the battle, or occasionally some Maelstromling that had somehow managed to reach such a deep place of the town. However, it was not meant for them to arrive in the Tower easily.

Soon, they found themselves walking under a Maelstrom Dragon hovering above and making circles. In fact, it was no simple Dragon. It was the biggest Dragon of the herd and some would say it was stronger than Butterscorch.

“Keep going and it might not notice us!” Shadow said while they passed next to a stairway that led into the town “Maelstrom Dragons don’t have very good eyesight!”

Indeed, that seemed to happen in the beginning. Yet, soon they found an obstacle in their way. A place where somehow the Wall’s floor had collapsed. The gap was too long for them to jump and too deep to climb down and then up. They had to go back and use the stairs. They dealt with the idea a bit fearfully, because that gave the Dragon, which they had passed for a moment, a second chance to notice them, but in the end with Magical making the start, they made the decision.

The Dragon was above them again and the fellowship was approaching the stairway they had walked past before. Yet, as they made their first steps on the stairs, they heard a roar behind them. The Dragon was coming. . .

### Chapter 31: An Awful Lot of Running

The Dragon was behind them chasing them. They knew that. They could hear its roars and occasionally felt the heat caused by the flames it breathed. The fellowship had reached halfway of the staircase and was now running at full speed in order to escape from the Dragon. They thought that if they reached the hallway at the end of the stairway, the Dragon might stop chasing them.

But their wish did not come true, for after reaching the hallway, turning right and continuing running they soon heard a crash behind them. Some of them had the courage to look over their shoulders and they saw the huge Dragon having stopped for a second where the stairs and corridor linked. Smashed rocks were lying under it and next to it. The entrance had not been wide enough or tall enough for it to pass and in its momentum it had also crashed on the wall opposite to the entrance.

However, the Dragon soon started chasing them again. It wasn’t flying anymore for there was no space for it to stretch its wings or for it to hover. Yet, it was still running quickly even though it had to destroy big parts of the walls and the ceiling. It opened its mouth and something that at some aspects was worse than fire came out of it. *Lava!* The Dragon was spiting lava in order to burn them!!!

“Quick! FLY!!!” bellowed Shadow, who had seen all of that.

The extremely hot liquid was spreading on the floor of the hallway and was going faster than either the Dragon or the minifigures. The lava had the usual red-orange colour of lava, but there were also purple ‘patches’. The Dragon constantly approaching them and the lava going so fast, soon they started feeling their backs warming. They didn’t know how the Dragon found so much lava to spit and they didn’t even think about it. Their only concern was to get out of there alive. To all that, added the sound of the Giant walking, which had just started.

Shadow attempted one more look behind him and to his horror he saw the lava very close to his feet, while the Dragon was not very far. It now had stopped spitting, but the liquid had much momentum on its own anyway. Besides their back now being very hot, the whole atmosphere was warming and they were sweating very much.

Looking forward, Shadow saw something that he realised could save them. They were approaching a window!

“Out of the window! Jump!” he shouted while he accelerated in order to make sure the liquid fire behind him wouldn’t touch him.

His legs were now burning, not because of the general heat, but because of the intense running. Nevertheless, he kept running in that speed and when he reached the window he jumped out of it. All the rest save for Quantum had already jumped and Quantum followed Shadow instantly. They were out of danger; at least as far as lava was concerned.

They heard a roar and the Dragon flew out of the hallway, loudly creating a hole on its ceiling. This time instead of starting chasing again, it started flying in circles above them going upper and upper until it reached the height of the Wall. Its magical flakes protected it from the heat and the burning liquid, but it still needed to cool down again. So, it postponed the chase.

The five minifigures didn’t even think they were safe. The threat of the Dragon was still very near, while they thought this could be a trick. But they did not lose a second to dwell on it. They started running again.

They did not dare go into the hallway again. However, they didn’t think it would be too dangerous to climb onto its ceiling. That way, they’d still follow its route to the next stairway without walking past it or having to pass through the corridor. Hence, Shadow quickly opened his backpack and some bricks flew out of it led by his Imagination. They stopped next to the hallway’s wall forming a bouncer. Shadow’s fellows one by one jumped on it and landed on the ceiling.

The next staircase wasn’t very far. They had already covered a lot of distance inside the corridor. They joyfully ran towards it. Once they reached it, they jumped and started flying the stairs. However, there was something that was worrying Shadow. He couldn’t locate the Dragon! Where could he be? It didn’t take them long to learn. They were halfway up the stairs when they heard a roar and saw the Dragon at the top of the staircase. The Dragon saw them, too, and it started flying after them.

The fellowship changed direction immediately. However, Magical suddenly stopped and stayed behind. He bellowed: “This has to stop! We can’t run forever! I’ll distract it! You go!”

He turned around to face the beast and instantly put his shield in front of him to protect himself from the tongues of fire sent by the Dragon against him. The rest of the minifigures, though, did not see more of that battle, because they had to continue. They only heard some roars before they got too far to hear them.

Once they reached the corridor, they considered leaving it, the memory of their last visiting of its being still fresh. However, in the end they decided that even if Magical did not manage to hold the Dragon back, he would distract for enough time for them not to be in much danger. Shadow remembered there was no other stairway leading to the Wall after the one they had just left. They would have to climb the staircase of the Tower from its bottom to its top.

Fortunately, they did not meet any new danger while they covered the last of the distance until the Palace. The building on which the Central Tower was built, was called Palace, because the Palace used to be at its place. However, it had stopped being an actual Palace a long time ago, even though the Royal Family still dwelt it. It was mainly the Nexus Force Headquarters of Castle Kingdom. Inside it there were more corridors with many doors leading to several rooms. However, they needed to go straight to the centre of the round building where the stairs lay.

They soon were there, climbing once more a stairway. They were going round and round, landing to landing, from flight of stairs to flight of stairs. They were already tired, but now they were getting exhausted. Some time when they were halfway there and a little further, they had stopped running too tired to do so without a direct motivation. However, once they felt the Tower shaking hit by a boulder they accelerated again. A team of Maelstrom creatures had invaded a tower of the Curtain Wall and they had taken over the catapult on its top. Now they were trying to destroy the High Tower. The most frightening thing in the whole experience, though, was not the shaking or the loud noise, but the fact that the Tower had now started tilting.

They kept going. It was the only thing they could do. When a second boulder hit the Tower after some minutes and things became more tilted, Dragon cursed their luck! Couldn’t that happen a little later, he thought. Yet, when they had started thinking they’d never reach the top, the next landing turned out to be the last floor. They saw the Launch Pads put all around the room, the closed windows in front of the Pads and the Control Panel in the centre. The room was empty.

“We have to open the windows to take off!” Shadow said.

“I’ll do that!” Quantum replied heading for the Control Panel “You guys prepare your rockets for launch! We mustn’t lose any time!”

The others did as they were told. They got their rockets out of their backpacks, placed them on a launch pad each and mounted them. Meanwhile, Quantum was pressing buttons on the Control Panel and the windows of their Launch Pads started opening one by one. Kate took off first; Dracula followed her and then was Dragon. Shadow and Quantum were the last ones. Quantum ran towards the Launch Pad next to Shadow’s, while the latter’s rocket engine turned on. While his rocket started flying, going slowly in the start as rockets usually do, he heard a very alarming noise. It was the sound of a boulder hitting the Tower. He looked back and saw his friend saluting him behind one of the windows. Then, the Tower collapsed. . .

### Chapter 32: Four Davids and one Goliath

Myrror watched the Giant approaching his mood worsening with its every step. The Being had to be stopped before it reached the Wall, but how could he stop something so huge.

“Can’t you just use your magic to stop it or something?” the Knightess with whom he had fought before asked.

“Not really! Giants are Magical Beings and there is magic in their skin. We would have pissed him off long before my magic affected him enough. And a furious Giant is something you wouldn’t like to see, let alone fight!” Myrror replied trying not to show his desperation.

Before any more words were said, someone else arrived. The Black Knight had come running on the inner edge of the wall (quite dangerously I might say).

“Greetings Myrror!” the Black Knight arriving next to him “I have come for the Giant!”

After the FFFFF Team had its adventure at Maelstrom Lair, Shadow had spoke to Mardolf the Orange about the city of the Black Knights. Mardolf had sent Myrror to investigate the place and he had met the Last of the Black Knights there.

“Maybe we three could fight together against the Giant!” the Knightess suggested, who did not know the Black Knight, but did not see reason why not accept his help.

“Count me in!” said another female voice.

They saw that Sarah Darkon had also come and listened to their short conversation. Myrror looked at the little company and said: “Okay! And I have found a way to reach him quickly!”

He quickly explained with a few words. The others agreed and they approached the edge of the wall. Then, they jumped with Myrror going first. In the start, they were falling with quite some velocity, but then suddenly they jolted. Myrror had sent a piece of land flying towards them. He also did some magic so that they wouldn’t hit during collision with the flying rock. The rest proceeded to fight any Maelstrom Beings on the chunk in order for Myrror to be able to send the next chunk to the sky. They were mostly trying to push them out of the chunk making them fall.

While the piece of land started losing speed and then going down, the next chunk appeared in front of them and they jumped on it. They kept on with this procedure, and they generally had no problems except for some few times when some of them belated jumping and they barely managed to take hold of the edge of the next chunk.

They soon approached the Giant, who was at that moment raising a big boulder from the ground and launching it against the Inner Curtain Wall, destroying a big part of the place it fell on. At first, they were jubilant that their plan had worked so far, but that reminded them what they were dealing with.

The chunks were mostly reaching the height a little over the neck of the creature. That’s why when they made the last jump they landed on the Being’s shoulders, Sarah and Myrror on the right one, and the other two on the left one. The Knightess, whose name was Milancillia, disgusting though it might have been, climbed until the ear, got in it and started hitting her shield with her sword. The Black Knight also climbed, but he continued till the top of his head, where his hair made it a bit forest-like. Sarah from the other side did so, too. Myrror sustained the spell he had already started that protected them from the Darkling’s Aura. Luckily, it wasn’t in infecting mode, for if it was, not even the strongest Enchanter would be able to block the infection for much. He also raised his staff and produced a high-pitched sound whose frequency was so high that they did not hear it. The Giant, however, did.

The plan was to make the Maelstromling dizzy. If one Giant got dizzy, they wouldn’t be able to keep their balance and most probably they would fall. However, the back of their head was their weak spot. If it was hit hard, there was no saving them.

Once the banging of the shield and the high-pitched sound started, the Giant noticed their existence. He did not know where exactly they were, so he just started hitting his head randomly. And let me tell you, that hurts. He soon stopped, roared and started searching for them with his hands. Meanwhile, the two minifigures on his head, who had until then grabbed from his hair, started now hitting his head with their sword and shield in the case of the Black Knight and katana and hammer (one of these you get in Forbidden Valley) in the case of Sarah. They weren’t sure whether they were going to make him dizzy, but they certainly would cause him a headache, which was almost as bad.

Feeling the pain on the top of his head the Giant started shaking it as if trying to get them out of it. Surely enough, Sarah did not manage to hold from any hair and rolled to the right side again. The Black Knight like her rolled, but he towards the forehead. Then, one idea struck Sarah’s mind while she grabbed a tuft of hair before she fell on the shoulder.

“Can’t ya cast a dizziness spell on him!” she shouted out to Myrror.

“I’ve already told you! Magic does not work easily on Giants!” Myrror replied.

“Can’t ya ask from the other wizards here to assist ya? Ain’t that help?” Sarah said.

“That might work!” he responded after thinking a bit about it.

Myrror then spread his mind throughout the whole town, the whole battlefield and sent a message to every magic-user in Castle Kingdom. As soon as he started chanting the words of a spell, he could feel that some force –or many of those for that matter– somewhere else was strengthening his own spell.

The Giant stopped looking for them. He seemed thoughtful for a bit. Then, he raised his arms in a way showing he was trying to keep his balance. Indeed he had started trembling and shaking a bit. There was the danger of his falling. Then, the Black Knight had one idea, too.

“Send a chunk in front of his head!!!” he exclaimed to Myrror, who fortunately heard him.

Myrror did as he was told and expected to see what the plan of the Black Knight was. The said man watched the piece of land launch from the ground and a little before it had reached his height he jumped with force toward the place it would reach. In total synchronization with the chunk he reached it once it was at the height of the Giant’s forehead or a little bit lower. He bent his legs for a second to give him further force and then jumped back putting his shield in front of his head. He hit the Being on the forehead and that was the final blow. For a second it seemed to fight not to fall, but in the end it did fall backwards.

All of them hurried to the front part of his body. Once he hit the ground the jolt was so powerful that they jettisoned away from the body and fell on the ground. They were successful. However, there came a part which they had forgotten to include in their plan. They were now being surrounded by Maelstrom Beings. . .

### Chapter 33: Bring the Dragon Down!

Magical ducked for what seemed to be the thousandth time. He had been fighting the Dragon since the rest of the team had left and he still hadn’t managed to hit the Dragon more than a few times. Magical himself hadn’t been hurt much by the Dragon either. He had a deep would on his knee made by the Dragon’s claws, but that was it. Yet, his shield had eventually been melted. After all this fighting with the Dragon, Magical wasn’t even sure he knew how they ended up back on the Cross-Wall.

The Sentinel thought then he could use some trick from his backpack. The next time the Dragon attacked with its claws, Magical hit its hand/end of a wing. The sword remained on it and with his free hand, he searched inside his backpack, while the beast angrily roared. He was lucky for quickly finding something quite useful: A Huge One! The Huge Ones was an improvement of the Big Ones that Shadow had invented.

Grabbing the explosive, he tossed it onto the Dragon as quickly as he could for the thing was heavier than the usual explosives Nexus Force used. It fell onto the brute’s neck and exploded. Instantly Magical felt a sharp pain at his cheek and his right forearm. The explosion had caused some flakes or fragments of them to detach and fly towards many directions. Some of them cut Magical.

While the Maelstrom creature roared furiously, he thought that he would be lucky if he managed to get his sword back; it was a pity for he had used this sword and its twin at his hand for many years. Then, however, he thought that he would be lucky if he survived.

While it spit fire again, which it didn’t do that often now since its supply of fuel to burn inside its body and create flames was running low and it takes time to produce more, Magical ducked. He still, however, felt being a bit burnt at his back. It was not a very sharp pain for the flames had barely touched him at all. However, whatever flammable was touched was now on fire and the Sentinel was afraid that this would cause he armour to get extremely hot or that the flames would eventually reach his skin.

Indeed he started feeling his back getting hotter and hotter, while he drew away from the creature. Suddenly, for some reason he was very aware of the rest of the battle around him, which he wasn’t noticing before. Aircrafts above him shooting at each other, falling and crashing or just making noise by passing; swords and shields making metal clangs upon collision; arrows being launched; Maelstrom Beings growling and roaring; screams of fear, cries of agony, victorious exclaims; boulders smashing on the Wall, the ground or the buildings; bombs exploding; generally anything you can hear in any kind of battle.

The pain is now excruciating. Magical is sure that even though his skin has not been reached by fire, burn scars must have appeared on his back by now. He falls down, but keeps trying to move by crawling, because the Dragon has not forgotten about him. The beast is walking towards him slowly because it knows that its prey is hurt and cannot really get away. In a way, it is boasting to Magical.

The man falls down defeated by pain. He knows his fate and accepts it. With the little power he has left he manages to raise his head a bit and look at the sky. He wishes that the Maelstrom Vortex wasn’t there to spoil the sight or that it was a more beautiful time to look at the sky like the sunset, but it still is a good thing to look at during the moments of one’s life. It gave Magical courage.

Then, the most bizarre thing appears in the sky that Magical starts thinking that the pain is giving him hallucinations. One minifigure is launched from the field where the Besieging Forces lie, followed by another one. While the two minifigures cross the air, two more appear behind them. They make an arch-like move above the battlefield and start falling. Seconds before they land, Magical realises that they are heading for the particular place of the town where he is! The Dragon, who has now almost reached him, sees them, too, and is distracted.

Four crashes are heard and Magical knows they’re behind him.

“When you said it would make us fly to safety, I didn’t think it was meaning it literally!” one very familiar voice exclaims a bit angrily.

“Well, me neither! This is the first time I cast this spell!” says another, vaguely familiar voice, while suddenly he feels the flames burning out.

At that point, the Dragon makes an angry snarl and the four minifigures notice him for the first time, which is weird considering its huge size. One of them shouts: “Holy Crux!” and then the Dragon roars as loudly as it can and attacks.

Magical can only hear all these. He also hears a battle starting between the two sides, but he doesn’t know the details. With a lot of effort, he manages to turn around and he now is on his back. The pain multiplies, because his burnt back is now touching the floor. However, he needs to see what is happening.

Sarah, whom he had already recognised by her voice, and Myrror, who he realises was the other voice, are there. He also sees the Black Knight, remembering that time when they had met him at the ruins, and a Nexus Knight woman. At that moment something has forced the Dragon to rise on its two legs. Magical sees a unique opportunity at that. He gathers all that is left of his powers and stands up, runs for a second and jumps. The next moment his sword has hit the Dragon where its heart is.

Magical, content feels the Dragon tilting towards its back and then falling, not on the Wall’s floor, but towards the ground. With his energy having run out, the world blacks out and the Knight faints. . .

### Chapter 34: Flight in Space

The time between the launch of Shadow’s rocket and the tower’s starting to collapse lasted about a second. Launch pads had this glitch that made a rocket detach from it before it is really launched. However, unless the rocket gets more than a metre away, there is no problem and the rocket is launched in full speed a second or so later.

Thus, the next moment, Shadow’s rocket was flying with a speed that surpassed the sound’s barrier. The Palace and its collapsing Tower were now very far below them. With a great concern about Quantum, Shadow was forced to look in front of him again. They were about to get out of the atmosphere of the world. Kate, Dracula and Dragon were flying in front of him.

As their surroundings started looking more like space than sky and the rockets began slowing down, Shadow activated his inter-rocket communicator. A list of nearby rockets appeared on a screen and he pressed with his fingers (it was a touch screen) the rockets which he recognised to be his friends’. In that way, they would all be able to talk to each other, but they would be the only to hear the discussion.

“Let me lead!” Shadow told the others, as they entered the space battlefield.

By that time things had gotten quite intense there. Each spaceship, starfighter and rocket was firing whatever it had as quickly as it could, wherever it could. The Nexus Force had destroyed many enemy starships and rockets. However, Maelstrom kept bringing more and now it seemed that it had the advantage. Not only were the Nexus Force vessels quite less, but also they were surrounded. The only way to which they could flee now was downward, but they were reluctant to do so, for they did not want the enemy spaceships to get any closer to Castle Kingdom.

On the bright side –for Shadow at least- the place was teeming with bricks. There was no end of them. As soon as they got into the battle they became the moving targets of multiple ships. Yet, whatever attack was sent against him or his friends Shadow would repel it by joining a few bricks together and using them as shields. At the same time, he was able to use bricks to fix damages he saw at nearby friendly vessels, drive his rocket and from time to time even to push some joined bricks with an Imagination force towards an enemy and hit it. Moreover, he was looking for the Traverser.

The Nexus Imaginer was in the centre of the battle. The biggest and best-equipped Maelstrom ships were around the Nexus Force Flagship firing at it with all their might. They knew that if it was destroyed, they most probably would win the battle. Shadow located a badly damaged FFFFF Traverser flying near the Nexus Imaginer assisting it.

“I found it!” he exclaimed at the comm. “Follow me!”

He headed for the starship and one of his hands moved some bricks in order to repair some of the damage on it. However, at that time many of the spaceships attacking the huge flagship and the smaller Traverser noticed them and some of their guns turned their attention to them. As they drew nearer and nearer to the centre of the battle, it became more and more difficult to defend himself and his friends. The attacks were coming so quickly that they reached increasingly closer to them.

The distance left now was very little, but Shadow could barely avoid being hit.

“Glittery, this is Shadow! Three more rockets and mine are just about to enter the ship! Open the hangar!” he quickly bellowed at another comm., which enabled him to communicate with bigger spaceships around.

Luckily, he saw the hangar gate being opened with no questions being asked. But at that last moment before he entered the hangar a laser hit the back of his rocket. The vessel started whirling around, but still going forward due to its momentum. It got into the spaceship and shortly after that crashed on the floor. The three other rockets landed smoothly behind Shadow. Only Dragon’s one had been damaged, too, but not enough to cause him crashing.

Glittery was already rushing towards them.

“What happened?! What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the ground battle?” she asked.

“There’s something I need to do! Something I only realised needs to be done down on the ground! But let’s go to the bridge! I’ll explain you while we’re going there!” Shadow responded.

They quickly got out of the room and started their way through the starship, which was not easy considering the damage it had sustained. Yet, they did manage to reach the bridge from where Brick was controlling the spaceship.

“We need to get out of here! Out of the battle!” he announced.

“How will we do that?! We’re circled!” Brick replied being too concentrated on driving to make any more questions.

“We’ll find a way!” Shadow said though he wasn’t sure himself. After a look around the battle he continued “Their upper side seems to be weaker! Let’s try to attack there and see whether a gap will appear” Certainly, Shadow wasn’t expecting this kind of difficulty.

However, it was overcome quickly and unexpectedly. As soon as the first laser hit a spaceship above them, that spaceship exploded. However, there was no way a mere laser could destroy an almost sound vessel. It was certainly a coincidence. This statement, which was what Shadow thought, was proved the next moment. The spaceship next to it, damaged by the explosion of the first one, but not enough to be destroyed itself, exploded, too. There seemed to be someone else attacking them.

Shadow did not wait to ask questions: “GO, GO, GO!!!”

With two spaceships gone, there was a big enough gap for them to pass through or at least a potential gap. Once they reached the height of the two exploded ships, around which more of them were attacked, they finally saw what had caused this. And it was a miracle!

The Venture Explorer flew above the battle as good as new. It was followed by three more spaceships, of unknown –to Shadow at least– origin. They had appeared from nowhere and were now attacking their enemies from above.

Everyone cheered, both for the return of spaceship which had been in battle for the past six or seven months and for their luck that it helped them get out of the battle. Indeed they had left the rest of the spaceships behind them now!

“Brick! I shall take charge now!” Shadow said sitting on a chair in front of the panels. He then spoke to the intercom. “Jean, Gregory! Can you come to the bridge?”

He had asked Glittery who else was still there while they were coming to the bridge and he had actually talked to Gregory explaining him that they were going to change their plans for a bit.

Shadow made the ship turn left and upward.

“Shadow! You do know that the Comet is the other war, right?” Kate asked.

“Oh, we’re not going to the Comet!” Shadow answered “I lied to Overbuild, so that he would let us go!”

Suddenly, it dawned on Kate that there probably was something far more serious they were going to do. That’s why he sounded so grim at the Wall!

“Then, where are we going?” she asked trying to sound calm.

Shadow smiled, but it could have as well been a grimace “The Maelstrom Vortex!”. . .

### Chapter 35: More trouble

As Sarah watched the Dragon and Magical falling a trail of memories flashed before her eyes. Her father and mother quarrelling with each other; her mother in her anger leaving them and never returning; her father going truly depressed; her father being smashed by some Maelstrom during an attack.

She didn’t know why all that came to her mind at that moment. Was she afraid to lose Magical like her mother and father? That couldn’t be! She hated that guy! But perhaps she liked to hate him, she wanted to have someone to fight with. That seemed to be the only logical explanation to her, but she was afraid to admit even that.

Sarah’s past was indeed dark, like the other three of the original FFFFF Team. During one of the many quarrels of her parents, her mother had gotten so angry that she left. However, shortly after that the Imagination Nexus was revealed and infected. Crux exploded and her mother never returned. Sarah had used many times that excuse for her mother; she couldn’t come because she was at a different world. However, she had also gotten angry with her saying she never should have left anyway. After that her father got very depressed and thus, when the Maelstrom invaded and the attacks started, he was not in a state of defending himself and he was smashed. Her uncle who had been caring for her before that anyway (she was six years old when her mother left), virtually adopted her after that. He was a good man, but nothing could ever fully mend those scars.

“Come on!” said a voice and Sarah remembered where and when she was “Let’s find him!”

The Black Knight, Sarah and Milancillia ran for the nearest stairway. However, Myrror instead of that just jumped from the wall onto the ground. It wasn’t long before the rest joined Myrror, who not having been damaged by the fall at all, was checking on Magical.

“Luckily, he didn’t remain on the Dragon’s body after the fall! He hasn’t major infections and I think that all wounds can be healed! But he needs medical care immediately” he told them once they arrived.

The others all knew what he meant about not remaining on the Dragon’s body. Sometimes, some of the strongest kinds of Maelstrom like Dragons when smashed, in a last attempt for causing Chaos, would unleash all of their infecting power, fully infecting everything around them. By falling away from the Dragon, Myrror managed to save Magical before he the infection reached him.

“I’ll take him to the Sanatorium, so you can go to the battle!” Sarah said, but not showing any eagerness. Perhaps though, she felt some.

As Sarah raised Magical (something which some of the others did not think she could do) and carried him going towards the Sanatorium, Milancillia said “Wow! We smashed Cheesescorch! I hope that he goes to the Nimbus Station Cave of Chaos Recreation so as it is smashed permanently!”

Cheesescorch was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, Maelstrom Dragon. It was even considered by some as the Big Brother of Butterscorch, since it was stronger even than that, but there probably was no such relation. Most people did not know about him, because he was a Dragon of the Castle Kingdom.

“Yes, I hope we don’t see him again either!” Myrror said “Let’s go!”

They started walking towards the Curtain Wall, but did not ascend on the Cross-Wall, yet. They considered it was more dangerous there, so they would get up at the last staircase. When they were about halfway there, they were surprised by some bullets which started raining around them, hitting the ground. They immediately fell down. Shortly after that they heard the sound of aircrafts flying above them. They were more than one, but the shooting stopped quickly. The planes were flying very fast, –breaking the sound barrier actually (that’s why they didn’t hear them coming)– so they had all passed after a few seconds. Fortunately, only Myrror had been hit on the arm, but it was no problem for him, so they continued briefly afterwards, after some caring for Myrror’s injury.

Soon, they arrived at the last staircase, not having any other problems. They ascended it and soon they approached the other Nexus-Forcers and Nexus Knights. They did notice that they were fewer now, while the Maelstrom Beings had increased somewhat.

Once they joined the group and started fighting again, they heard some screams. They looked around them to see what was happening. For an instance, they couldn’t find it. Then, the Black Knight located it and gasping he pointed to it. The others saw, too.

“Do you know any way of defeating *this* thing?” an astounded Milancillia asked Myrror.

“Well, I don’t usually study how to fight things that are extinct!” Myrror replied in a similar tone.

“I don’t blame you for some reason!” Milancillia said.

There was a huge Brute coming toward the Wall, a beast no one expected they would see. It was a Maelstrom Mammoth. Mammoths are huge on their own, but infected… they get even bigger. In front of the Mammoth there were also three Maelstrom Elephants. They were bigger than normal, too, but they were nothing compared to the Mammoth whose height exceeded the Wall’s by a little.

Everyone’s attention was immediately drawn by the monster… Or I should say everyone whose attention could be drawn, for they were still in the middle of a battle. Arrows and other projectiles were sent volley after volley onto the Mammoth and its elephant comrades. Perhaps though that was not the best method. Such projectiles were probably just a nuisance for the Mammoth and angering something so big and strong was not very safe.

Then, the first flaming boulder was catapulted. It hit one of the elephants, which fell down and smashed. Soon, a second one was launched, but it passed the Mammoth and fell upon the Maelstrom Beings behind it. The third, however, found its target. The strike of the elephant had been alarming enough, but this outraged it and filled it with fear. The Mammoth trumpeted in agony as loud as it could and then started running as fast as its nature let it.

On the bright side, on its stampede it crashed the two other elephants and smashed many Maelstrom Beings. However, on the dark side, which was the one everyone of the Nexus Force was seeing, it was heading right for the Wall. All the minifigures who were on the part where the collision would occur started running away. Even some of the Stromling ran for their lives. Only some stupid Darklings stayed long enough to experience the effects of the impact. The collision occurred. Everyone was shaken, but the Stromlings who hadn’t run were just jettisoned away from the Wall towards the town. The Wall, surprisingly, had not broken, even though it was on the brink of it. At the point of the impact, the Wall had now created a curve and was full of cracks. Many rocks had detached from the rest and fallen on the ground.

Everyone, even the Maelstromlings, stayed still to see what was going to happen next and they held their breaths. The Mammoth made a few steps back and then it rose on its two back legs trumpeting again. Everyone closed their ears due to the deafening sound. Then, the Mammoth falling back on its four legs hit the Wall again and it collapsed. . .

### Chapter 36: The Archer

In the meantime, Berg the Archer was fighting at the other side of the town. The fighters there hadn’t learnt of the news of the breaking of the Wall where the Mammoth had appeared. However, they did notice that a bit fewer enemies were now coming per wave.

Berg the Archer was a man that had grown up in Castle Kingdom. His homeland was Viridi Regnum, the old enemy of the Black Knights. He would have never dreamed of working together with his enemies when he was young. But there he was, a member of the Order of the Nexus Knights, the united force of Castle Kingdom that had allied with the Nexus Force against the Maelstrom. All the Kingdoms except for the one of the Black Knights had contributed to the Order and their old conflicts had now almost been forgotten.

Berg had sought help at the Ferrum Regnum, the Central Kingdom of Iron, after his home was destroyed by the Maelstrom. It was one of the first to be taken over. The King had sent a strong force to assist the Black Knights in a battle against the incoming Maelstrom threat –despite their old rivalry the King had wisely recognised the true enemy. The King himself had led the army. Both Kings fell in that battle, the one smashed, the other infected; both armies were clearly defeated. Only two men survived non-infected the battle, one from each army. They had been forced to do so, so that they could bring the news to the others and speak of their achievements. The one returned to the capital of the Black Kingdom ashamed of his “running away”, as he considered it. The other was Berg himself.

After the Black Knights became past, Maelstrom turned its attention to the already weakened neighbour of theirs. Berg, who had seen what Maelstrom was capable of had already tried to persuade the rest to form alliances with the other Kingdoms or leave for somewhere else. However, disgraced as he was by his returning instead of falling in the battlefield, he did not succeed. When the incoming Maelstrom appeared on the horizon, a council was convened and it was decided that Berg be allowed to take the women and children to safety, wherever that was. With the help of a few volunteer Knights he brought them to the Ferrum Kingdom, while watching his home being burned. There they had lived ever since. Two more Kingdoms fell to the hands of the Darkitect before the Nexus Force intervened. With its help they managed to protect the remaining three Kingdoms. However, for Berg and for many other it was already too late.

Berg shot an arrow at one Stromling Gorilla with such accuracy that the beast fell down defeated by one arrow. He had been called ‘the Archer’ since his first battle against the Black Knights. He had shown such talent with it that even the Black Knights themselves treated him with respect. Berg’s father was a master at sword-fighting. Thus, he had been greatly disappointed to discover that after years of practice his son was still unable to fight properly with a sword. So was Berg, who did not want to be a disappointment. However, it had been a great surprise for both of them when they realised Berg was very good at archery. With a lot of practice he became the best of the Kingdom, perhaps of the whole Castle Kingdom. With his speed and accuracy, he had helped to keep the enemy at bay at that point of the Wall for much longer than most of the other places of the Wall.

However, the Maelstrom had still many aces up its sleeves. Berg had three quivers hanging on his back. He had used all the arrows of two of the quivers and some of the third. He’d be running out of them soon. He hoped he’d have the chance to go get some more. Yet, as he got ready to launch another arrow against a Dragon, the floor near him cracked. A Makryphyton grew out of it. Makryphyta were magic plants that had the ability to grow incredibly fast. They grew very long in a minute’s time and they grew many branches. They were usually dark green (although this one had much purple in it, too) had soft bark and few leaves. They had the ability to cause the same damage to a building that a plant’s roots could in a hundred years or more in some minutes.

Most people did not recognise it as a Makryphyton, but it is not hard to guess what damage it could cause. The branch was quite near Berg and it turned against him. It was blind, of course, but it must have had another way of sensing its surroundings. Berg dodged and he wasn’t hit on the head as the plant intended to, but it did hit his leg. It stung like whipping. Berg almost fell down by the pain. However, he was still quick enough to prevent the next attack. An arrow penetrated deep in the plant’s bark and some kind of juices got out. The bark got blackened at the spot where it was hit and around it. The branch was still able to move, but it was weakened and, as Berg noticed, the black area spread slowly towards the end of the branch.

Berg had no time to deal with that branch more. The floor kept cracking and another branch of the Makryphyton appeared. In addition, a third branch had grown some metres away and had captured a minifigure, squeezing him like a boa constrictor. Berg had an idea of a better way to deal with the branches. He used a special feature one of his side quivers had. At the edge of it, there was a thing like the top of a torch, which if alighted, could burn for almost one and a half hour. Then, he passed an arrow through that flame and the arrow caught fire as well. Indeed the two flaming arrows he shot at the two branches were much more effective.

However, there was another danger of the branches. After a bit they fell dead. Yet, they were quite heavy. If they fell onto you, it wasn’t certain whether you’d get up again. Berg realised this when the first branch passed just next to him falling down speedily and then making the floor shake a bit. The other branch started falling and Berg thanked his luck that the first branch had warned him for the second one would have hit him, if he hadn’t taken action soon enough.

Two more branches had appeared, the one of which split into two. It dawned on Berg that they couldn’t possibly defeat this thing. When hit somewhere, the part above the hit died soon, but the part below it remained alive. Yet, there was no way of reaching the lowest part.

“Leave!” he shouted to everyone “We can’t defeat it! I’ll fight it for as long as I can!”

Some left, but some others had reservations about this. However, when that part of the Wall started tilting a little and when someone cut one branch, but it just grew two more out of the place where it had been cut like the Lernaean Hydra, they decided Berg was right. Soon they were all out of the Makryphyton’s reach, fighting other Maelstromlings, but also watching how Berg was doing.

Fortunately for Berg, whoever led this attack had decided to stop sending any other enemies there, probably for fear of their being smashed, too. Only some flying enemies appeared once in a while, but Berg had no problem dealing with them as well as the plant. The fight from now on was a battle to shoot the branches as soon as possible, so that they could cause the less harm. It was also a battle to keep standing as the Wall tilted more and more. Berg had now realised that as long as they stayed alive, the branches kept growing. Some of them kept growing even after hit, since the lower part was still alive.

Berg’s quick reflexes and quick moves kept him alive for long enough. The one branch was coming after the other, but Berg managed to shoot them all. But then came the time that Berg had only two arrows left. Theoretically, there were many arrows stuck in the many dead branches. However, the moment Berg would stop fighting to pick them up would be the end of him.

He drew the first arrow and passed it through the flame. But he hesitated for a second. There were more than two branches and so he needed to use his last arrows wisely. Yet, that one second was all it took for Berg’s time to run out. The floor upon which he was standing collapsed and he together with masses of rock started falling!

And then Berg saw it. At the base of the Wall, he could see where the plant got out of the soil. He could even see part of the fruit that was the start of the plant. He drew his second arrow as well to be sure he’d have the best results. And then as he kept falling, two arrows were launched. His shot was accurate as ever. The fruit had been hit. He could see the blackness starting spreading to the whole plant. Berg was happy he managed to end the plant before his own end came. . .

### Chapter 37: Strange Odd Shadow’s Plan

Strange Odd Shadow had just explained his plan to his friends, the members of the FFFFF Team. He had told them that he had designed a very particular kind of bomb. It was called the Nova-Power Disinfection Object-Concentrated Bomb or NPDOCB. It had power almost like a weak Supernova’s, Shadow claimed, but it only disinfected Maelstrom, it did not destroy. However, its best feature was that all of its power was concentrated on the object thrown to. Its force would only be diffused all around, if not all of it was necessary for the complete disinfection of the object. It would be the best weapon against the Maelstrom Vortex.

Once he showed them the bomb, which was a cube (“It’s power is hidden inside the cube” Shadow had said), he explained that he was going to fly as close as he could with the Traverser and then would continue with his rocket and throw the NPDOCB in the Vortex. The cube would activate itself and open once near any big concentration of Maelstrom. When the others said “What about the Comet?” Shadow had replied the cube shouldn’t be wasted in the Comet and he could only make one due to the rare ingredients needed.

Everyone was amazed at the cube and they congratulated Shadow for that great achievement of his. However, they did not all just see that side of the story. Many thought that if Shadow tried to do that, he’d certainly be smashed seconds after he had implemented his plan, if not earlier.

“But there’s also something else!” Shadow said “I shall not let you risk your lives by coming with me to the end of this mission! You will all be out of here the moment I tell you, whenever that is!”

Brick tried to complain, but he was cut off by Shadow who said “No buts!”. The rest remained silent, but many knew they were not going to do exactly what Shadow wanted.

During the explanation, they had travelled a big part of the distance between the Castle Kingdom and the Maelstrom Vortex. Almost as soon as Shadow finished they entered the dangerous zone or Vortex Zone, the area where most of the lightning of the Vortex occurred and where there were so many other dangers of the Maelstrom. The Venture Explorer had been travelling at the borders of this land when it was ambushed.

Maelstrom Lightning started appearing around them instantly trying to hit them. Shadow and Kate were controlling the ship making it maneuver to avoid all the attacks. Shadow could see through the glass the two evil eyes at the centre of the Vortex watching them, wishing them smashed. Fortunately, all kinds of creatures that usually wander around in this place were now at the battle and there was no spaceship not trying to smash the Nexus Fleet. Yet, they still met some Space Maelstrom, Maelstrom flames that survived even in space and some kind of Space Maelstrom Clouds that the Vortex conjured. They did not find out what they did, but they were all certain it would be something catastrophic. And of course there was the old usual lightning.

Maelstromlings or not, it was a very difficult trip. Shadow recalled that when they had come there in the ship of Berrergodd, the demised General of the Darkitect, it was much easier to reach the Maelstrom Lair. However, when in a Nexus Force Vessel, it is always difficult to fly through the Vortex Zone.

They were approaching the Maelstrom Lair now. It was Darkitect’s base, one of Crux’s chunks, which had felt what complete infection meant. There was even a Maelstrom replica of the Nexus Tower on it, the Maelstrom Tower. It was a perfect Maelstrom version of the Nexus Tower except for the lack of a beam of Maelstrom flying to the sky over it.

As they passed over the world, which now seemed empty (though this could be a trap), Shadow thought that there was no way they could continue travelling so easily. Indeed they hadn’t left the world behind them for long when the whole starship was shaken by a lightning. The ship split into two and stopped travelling.

“Now would be the right time for you to leave, I think!” Shadow said as he opened the door to check the damage and he saw that the ship was now two pieces.

He quickly closed the door and shouted “Go, go, go!”

Shadow had always meant to talk to the Faction Leaders about the Maelstrom they had trapped back in Yorkanton City. He had remembered to do so, just after he had defeated the Darkitect. A squadron of Disinfectors had been sent to Yorkanton in order to disinfect the Half-Stromlings. Shadow had not been allowed to go with them due to the nature of his departure from his Home-World. He hadn't argued for the anger the Mayor had caused him was still fresh. He still remembered his last words to that man saying he wouldn't want to come back even if there wasn't any sort of banishment. Yet, the disinfected people of Yorkanton were not welcomed by their old fellows. They all remembered that these people had been infected and not understanding how all the Maelstrom stuff worked they did not trust them anymore. And even though some were ready to accept them, the Mayor decided to banish them and they became Outcasts. Nexus Force had been glad to take them in, so many of the Outcasts were now being hosted in Nexus Tower or other places of the Nimbus System. Not all of them liked it, but they had no other choice. Jean and Gregory were two of those Outcasts. They knew what part Shadow and his friends had played in their saving, so they felt indebted to him. Thus, they were very loyal, even in cases like that. The two minifigures did not need to be told twice and they were soon gone.

Brick seemed ready to argue. However, Glittery thought that it would be dangerous if two rocketeers flew on their own, so she told Brick and they decided to follow the other two to help them. However, Kate, Dragon and Dracula stood there not showing any intention to leave.

“What are you doing?! I told you to leave!” Shadow, who was not going to launch before he was sure the others were safe, shouted to them.

“Shadow, there is no way we are leaving you to go to this suicidal mission!” Kate answered.

“I can go instead of you!” Dracula offered “I don't have something to lose and I don't have someone who will lose me!”

“NO!” Shadow bellowed “You don't understand! I can't-” He was interrupted.

Dragon had drawn his sword and hit Shadow with the grip on the head. Shadow fell on the floor unconscious.

“Sorry buddy, but I can't let you do something so crazy!” Dragon said and then turned to Dracula “I don't really know you and I feel sorry if you have to do such a thing! I could do it, too, if you don't want to!”

“No, you make sure Shadow reaches safety! I know you're a better fighter! You'll be more needed!” Dracula replied.

With that, he grabbed Shadow's cube, which was in his pocket, took out his rocket and putting it on a launch pad, which had been built inside the bridge took off for the core of the Maelstrom Vortex. . .

### Chapter 38: Protect the Breach!

The Mammoth had broken the Wall, but it hadn't yet intruded into the city. The Nexus Force was going to do whatever it could to stop it from doing so. There was a Nexus Tank put in front of it firing its shells to it, three aircraft bombarding it from the air, two catapults in reach launching their boulders, many minifigures with ranged weapons hitting it from afar and some Assembly lot building whatever their minds could think of to delay the Mammoth's getting in. Everyone knew that if it did get in, it would cause havoc, destroying everything.

Meanwhile many Maelstromlings were ascending on the beast's back considering it a safer way of getting onto the Wall. Indeed many of them did. However, there were several others who were either hit by the projectiles of all kinds or flung from the Mammoth's back whenever it abruptly rose to its two back legs. Nonetheless the people on the Wall had to fight both the attackers from the Mammoth and the 'ladder-climbers'.

Many Nexus-Forcers and Nexus Knights had gotten down on the ground preparing for when the Mammoth would get out of the way, however this happened, and the Maelstrom would pour into the town. Among them there were also creatures which were not human like Elves and Dwarves. Such races were native in Castle Kingdom. There were generally many magical species inhabiting the place. Several of them were allied with humans to protect themselves, too.

“It can't be destroyed!” said Fire Neutron Cadet, one of the aircraft pilots.

“Not from outside!” replied Nitro Fast Wing, another pilot “What about the inside?!”

“That's a good idea! Tell the others!” Cadet spoke to his comm.

Soon a plan had been formed and everyone was informed of it. The catapults launched their boulders aiming at the points they assumed the Mammoth would hurt more. As they wanted, the Mammoth opened its mouth while trumpeting in that deafening way. All the aeroplanes, the tank and the minifigures instantly were firing whatever they had inside the mouth of it. When they started impacting and it realised what was happening it closed its mouth again. But it was too late. Its interior was indeed weaker and all the explosions occurring inside the beast were lethal for it. It tried to keep standing for some seconds and then collapsed on the ground between the parts of the Wall.

Fortunately, the brute had so much destructive power that it couldn't have much infective one. Thus, it did not cause an after-smash infection like Cheesescorch.

Everyone got ready for whatever would follow. Some were still fighting, because the enemies had not stopped coming, but others were waiting to see what would happen with the breach. They didn't have to wait for long.

The Spider Boss returned. It ran to the body of the Mammoth and managed to drag it out of the breach. It could have caused more harm than that, but all those who were fighting the Mammoth before, now turned to it. Yet, the Spider Boss designed by Typhonus to be a survivor was easily scared in a battle that could cause much harm to it. Hence, it soon fled again. Only the Darkitect could force it to remain in a battle despite its will, but it seemed he had no such intention right now.

A battle started at the breach immediately. Both Maelstrom and Nexus Force had gone forward the previous trying to break in the town, the latter trying to defend it. However, soon a different enemy appeared... a very different enemy.

Some Knights wearing red and black armour and holding black swords approached the breach. Their banners were divided in four parts, two red and two black. In their middle an angry red Dragon's head with fire at its nostrils was drawn.

Once Myrror saw them from the place where he was standing on the Wall, he spoke grievously “The Banished! I didn't know they were allied with the Maelstrom! Would anyone go so far for revenge?!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Milancillia.

“Some weeks ago, Mardolf the Orange sent me to a mission! He was suspecting that perhaps there was an extra Kingdom to the seven we know. And he was afraid that this kingdom wouldn't be friendly. He sent me to check this out. Indeed I found it! It is located at the other side of the Sorcerer's Woods. It wasn't exactly a Kingdom, because it consisted mainly of the capital city with its castle. But w could say that the surrounding land belongs to them. The people inhabiting it are called the Exsules, meaning the Banished. The 7 Kingdoms have banished people several times in the past. It seems that many of the outcasts had gotten together and founded a society. This Exsules are the descendants of theirs. There was a legend about this, but everyone though it was a fairytale! The Exsules have sworn to get revenge from the Seven Kingdoms. But I didn't know they had allied with the Maelstrom, too!”

Having to deal with destructive “machines” was bad enough on its own. However, hateful Knights seeking revenge made things much worse. . .

### Chapter 39: Concerning the Faction Leaders

To the annoyance of Duke Exeter, Vanda Darkflame had stayed with him throughout the whole time after executing Order 34. Now they were running to reach the point in front of the breach were everyone’s attention had turned now. However, as they were running they were informed through an earbud they both had in their ear that there was another breach at a different part of the Wall.

“Soon the Maelstom’s going to be everywhere in the town! I am afraid about poor old Albert! I don’t think he will be able to fight much. It is not his kind of thing! And I have a bad feeling about him! I’m pretty sure Maelstrom hates builders more than warriors, explorers or mystical scientists!” Arthur said to Vanda.

“Let me guess! You want me to protect Doc, while you try to smash yourself in the frontline?” Vanda replied.

“More or less!” Arthur told her not even bothering to care about the way she had expressed his wish.

“What about the other breach?”

“Hael is near! He can protect it!”

“I’d argue… if I didn’t agree Albert is in danger!”

At that point the two Faction Leaders split up, the one heading to the Wall, the other to the building from which Doctor Overbuild watched the battle. The Duke soon reached the place where many minifigures had gathered trying to stop the invaders. However, the Exsules were very well trained Knights, let alone their being driven by their desire for revenge. They had helped the Maelstrom defeat many of them and push them into the town.

Exeter jumped into the battle. After 17 years of his only enemy being the monsters of Maelstrom, Arthur did not like fighting with other normal minifigures. Yet, he was more used to it than many others participating in the battle. Back home, he had participated in many wars, all of which concerned minifigures on both sides.

Arthur, like the other Leaders, had been informed by Mardolf that the Exsules existed. Nonetheless, he was equally surprised with Myrror to see them in this battle. He was better than them. However, this did not mean he had to fight hard to defeat any of them. Fortunately, he had picked up a shield during the battle, that helping him against them.

Arthur Exeter had not been in the battle for long, when he saw someone whom he never expected to ever see again in Britay, let alone in Crux, a planet so far away. Memories deluged him. What was that man doing there?

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Doctor Overbuild was standing on the tower of one of the buildings of the town. He had wanted to be on a high place to watch what happened around him. He had not chosen the High Tower, because he was pretty certain it would collapse at some point of the battle. And he’d been right. From that place he could coordinate important things like what happened with the wounded and also build anything he found useful for the others or fix any damage. Of course there was so much damage, let alone his having to do other stuff, too, he had not been able to fix much.

At that point, Overbuild was talking with a man via a comm. to see what was happening with the injured.

“Have you put all of the wounded you found inside the ship?” he asked “…and pieces of smashed minifigures?! Good!... That’s what I thought, too… I’m asking because soon we’ll have to evacuate them… because we can’t let the Maelstrom reach them! ... Haven’t you been informed of the breaches? ... Yes, there are two already and there’s soon going to be a third as I’ve been told! ... I know about the space battle… Let me handle this! Goodbye!”

Overbuild lost no time and pressed some buttons on his comm., while he kept watching around him. His goggles allowed him to zoom in to see better what was happening in places far from there. He started speaking in the comm. again: “Hello Captain! This is Doctor Overbuild… We have to evacuate the wounded and the pieces of some minifigures! Can you do something so that the Maelstrom won’t harm the passing transport ships? ... Is this the only solution? … Well, we’ll have to do it!”

Albert had been told that there was a plan, but a risky one. The Nexus Force starships would retreat in the higher layers of the world’s atmosphere. When the Maelstrom ships would start following their retreating enemies they wouldn’t be ready to fight the fast incoming transport ships, which would shoot around them and leave. The risk was that with the Maelstrom fleet closer to the ground there was a danger that the Maelstrom ships would soon manage to attack the castle. That would be catastrophic.

The Captain explained to the Doctor exactly what he had to do. They needed to be fully coordinated. Albert called the man to whom he was speaking before again and explained to him what he had to do. He called the Captain again telling him they were ready and expecting his sign. Some seconds passed. The seconds became a minute, then almost two minutes. Before the second minute had passed though a beeping sound was heard coming from the comm. The same sound was heard by the man, too. About a second later Albert saw a relatively small transport ship shoot to the sky, followed by two more.

Albert looked at the sky and he thought he saw some small faint shapes. He just hoped this would work. At the same time another point of the Wall collapsed and it was very near Overbuild’s building. His attention was drawn to the ground again.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Hael Storm was running like the other two Faction Leaders. Yet, he was heading to a different point of the Wall; the second breach, which had been caused by the Makryphyton. He climbed the stairway of bizarre building. It was a building that cut the street leading to a part of the wall very near the breach in half. It had only two walls at the sides that saw to the other buildings. The sides that saw to the street only had staircases that led to the floor of the structure which was above the ground.

Once Hael reached the top, he saw that he had been too late. He hadn’t reached the Maelstrom, but the Maelstrom seemed to be reaching him instead. From the top he saw that some Stromling Admirals and Pirates had already intruded in the town and were running on the street headed exactly for the place where he was. Probably, the reason why they had managed to break in first here was that the breach was bigger. The battle was still going on near the breach, but these Pirates and Admirals had broken through the lines of the Nexus-Forcers.

Hael decided not to leave the building, realising he had an advantage from there, his enemies having to climb the stairs to reach him. Some other minifigures must have thought the same idea, because Hael was not alone there.

The Pirates came first. They were faster than normal Stromling Pirates. That was because they were nothing like normal Stromling Pirates. They were another kind of enemies that the Darkitect had recently managed to create. They were called Veterans by the Nexus-Forcers and were even stronger than Invaders. Their discovery had been so recent that even among the Paradox there were few who had heard of them. They were faster, smarter, stronger, and more infective (if they wanted –Maelstromlings often chose not to use their full infective power, because this could be exhausting for them).

The Pirate Veterans were ascending the stairway (not the one Hael had climbed since they were coming from opposite directions). One of the minifigures who was there had arranged weapon and started firing at them. The Darklings seemed to be unaffected, other than a momentary loss of their balance. Soon they reached the top. Hael was the first to confront them shouting “Come to me, wannabe pirates!”. He slashed his cutlass, the Sharkblade, as well as his knife at them. The Stromling Pirates blocked all of his first attacks. Yet, even when he managed to strike one of his enemies, it didn’t do much to it. The combat with it took much longer than Hael had expected. Those Veterans were much much better than the simple Darklings or even the Invaders.

Hael had just managed to defeat that “Sea-worm!” as he had called him during the combat and was about to engage in battle with another one when an anchor pegged just next to his leg. That reminded Hael that there were also Admirals –who were also Veterans. The one who had shot his anchor was still on the stairs and Hael thought this was a good chance to cut the chain of the anchor. This was a trick he had used many times with Stromling Admirals. But alas it wasn’t so simple. The moment that Hael tried to cut the chain Maelstrom energy surged out of the anchor hitting him and making him jettison to the other side of the place. Hael had never fought with something like this.

Getting up, he saw that the Admiral having hit anyone who was in reach of his anchor’s energy was now pulling it back. Soon it had climbed the last steps and came to the top. Hael charged against it, but his charge was spoiled because he had to avoid the Maelstrom blasts and cannon balls fired by its cannon-arm. The pirate captain finally managed to reach the Admiral and started fighting him.

At that point there were seven Pirates reinforced by the four Admirals who had just arrived. Hael did not see anyone coming after them, but they were enough to give a long and hard fight with the five minifigures defending the building.

Hael thought about what had caused him to end up fighting pirate-like destructive monsters inside a medieval style town. Memories of how the Maelstrom War had begun came to his mind. Many years ago, Baron Typhonus had visited him. At that time, Hael was betrayed and abandoned by his crew, the Venture Pirates as well as hunted by the navy. It didn’t take much to be persuaded by Typhonus to join him in the search for the Nexus. Typhonus had spoken so promising speeches about how he would be rewarded by discovering the Nexus. He couldn’t believe it when they were betrayed by him. To him, it had seemed that the Baron did not wish exactly to create the Maelstrom and cause a war between creation and destruction. He just wanted to serve his own purposes not realising how destructive the results could be. Apart from his treachery, Hael was blaming him for recklessness. Indeed Hael was being reckless, too, sometimes, but he knew there was a line where he should stop. The Baron had passed that line and now everyone was paying it.

While he thought, many minutes passed and Hael didn’t realise that now few of the starting enemies remained. He looked around to see where his help was needed most and then he saw the Exsules. Some red-and-black Knights seemed to have passed, too and were nearing the stairs. There were seven of them; one at the centre and the rest around the other. The central one had shades of red a bit darker and was wearing a cape. He had a long sword at one hand and nothing at the other. His helmet looked like a Dark Knight Helmet, but had the colours of his nation and two horns. He most probably was the leader of the Exsules. And he was heading for Hael.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Duke Exeter stared at the man. He had met him long ago in Britay, before he had even drawn Caliburn from its rock. At that time he was just the Duke of Legros, a land of Britay. In fact he had just acquired the title after his father’s, the former Duke’s, smash. At that time a man had come to the castle where Arthur lived and had questioned that Arthur was going to be a good Duke and thus had challenged him to a duel. Arthur did not have the experience he had as a Faction Leader, neither did he have the best sword in the Universe. However, he managed to defeat his mighty enemy. He decided in the end not to smash him though. He was not cruel and he did not believe that the man would threaten him ever again. But even if he did, wouldn’t he just be a little nuisance like the first time. Unfortunately, however, during the battle, the man’s right hand was cut. When Arthur let him go, he shouted that it would have been better if he had smashed him and he swore he would get revenge.

And there he was now, standing in front of him, Mordray of Calahoon. Mordray had seen him to and was walking toward him with his evil grin on his angry face. The man had orange hair, but his sideburns were black. His breastplate was made of red and white stripes. The part of his armour covering his legs was yellow and white. He was wearing no helmet. His right hand was missing. His left hand was holding a katana-like sword.

“Arthur! We meet again!” he spoke in the language that was native to a big part of Britay, a language which the Duke had almost forgotten despite being his mother tongue.

“Mordray! What are you doing here?! Or better how have you come here?!” Arthur asked.

“Arthur! Don’t tell me you have forgotten my promise to smash you! As for your other question, I’ll have to admit the Maelstrom and its allies have been very helpful to my cause!” Mordray answered his tone fully revealing his hatred and rage, even though the words could have been spoken by some more gentleman-like villain.

The response to his second question, although it didn’t really answer the question, worried Arthur very much. Not only was this lunatic allied with the Maelstrom, but also there were more people who had made alliances with the Maelstrom.

“You shouldn’t have allied with the Maelstrom! It wants to destroy all of us, including you! When you help it, you help it destroy you!” the Duke tried to make him see sense.

“You know what?! I don’t care! I just want you smashed!” Mordray almost bellowed.

And with those words their swords clashed.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Doctor Overbuild was still on the tower of that building when Vanda Darkflame reached him. Albert listened to her steps and turned around to see who had come.

“The transport ships have safely gotten away from the battle and now are on their way to Nexus Tower!” he said jubilantly “I was just informed some minutes ago!”

“That’s great!” Vanda smiled.

Albert’s smile faded suddenly and he frowned: “Why are you here, Vanda? Have you come to ‘protect’ me? Why do you always think I can’t protect myself?! I am able to stay alive in a battle! I don’t need bodyguards!”

This was an old fight between the Faction Leaders. It always made Overbuild angry when his fellow Leaders showed him so obviously how weak they thought he was in battle and how they always tried to have someone protect him.

“It is because, Albert, you can’t! You are a great builder and a brilliant mind, but you are no fighter! Don’t you remember the first battle we had with the Maelstrom?”

The Doctor looked away still being angry, but not having something to answer.

“We just want your good, Doc! Now, let’s get on the ground! We are an easy target up here! Maelstrom’s going to come soon from that breach over there!”

Overbuild made for the stairs despite his anger –Vanda was right about being easy targets–, but he didn’t ever manage to reach it. At that moment the tower was shaken and they started falling. The building had been hit by something and was collapsing. Fortunately, being on the highest place of it they were not buried under the debris. However, what Albert saw standing up terrified him completely. The Darkitect was approaching him on his chariot. . .

### Chapter 40: In the Vortex Zone

Only Kate, Dragon and the unconscious Shadow were now inside the spaceship. But they weren’t staying long. The starship was already in a very bad state, now and it seemed it was ready to collapse on their heads. Fortunately, it seemed that for some reason the Vortex had stopped attacking them.

Kate and Dragon were rushing to leave. The launch pad the others had used was now destroyed, but the two minifigures knew how to make them fly without it (Shadow had tinkered them in order to make sure they wouldn’t ever get stuck somewhere again because they had no launch pad). They were ready to enter them when Dragon said: “Will you take Shadow?”

Kate quickly responded “No! There’s something I have to do! You take him to safety!”. Then, Kate entered her rocket and in less than a minute was gone. Dragon did not wait to see her go. By the time she was out, he had also gotten in and put Shadow next to him (it was quite cramped in there). Mere seconds later, he was flying, too.

Looking back, Dragon saw the now ruined ship. He didn’t think anyone could fix this, but Shadow had incredible building powers. Perhaps he could even repair this. In the worst case he’d have to rebuild it, but this wouldn’t be anything to Shadow but a chance to make a better ship. As he looked over his shoulder he saw part of it collapse and he was sure that if they were there now they’d be smashed.

Dragon looked in front of him again. He couldn’t find Kate, but he wasn’t concerned. It seemed that the Vortex’s attacks were now aiming something nearer to its centre: Dracula most probably. The man turned his rocket and made for Castle Kingdom.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Kate was indeed safe. But perhaps she wouldn’t be for long. This depended on how much was it true that Maelstrom had brought all of its forces to Castle Kingdom. The mission she had assigned herself could become really dangerous.

When the four founders of the FFFFF Team had ended up inside the Maelstrom Tower of the Maelstrom Lair, the Darkitect had made Shadow feel all of the pain he had caused to anyone. This still gave him nightmares, even though the memories this had given him that were not truly his were slowly fading. Shadow had told Katie after they escaped and defeated the Darkitect that among all the people whom he saw in pain, Kate’s sister was one of them. He had said she was a prisoner in the Maelstrom Tower. Kate did not know how he had recognised her, but if he said she was there, she was there. She was only worried that perhaps she would be too late. But she tried not to think of this.

Kate, of the four Yorkantonian friends, was the one who had been attacked by Maelstrom the most times. In one of those, her little sister had been abducted. Both of them weren’t but children then. And Kate was still determined that she would save her sister.

And now was the best time. She wouldn’t ever get a chance like this. Most of the Maelstrom had abandoned the places where they usually were, which meant that Maelstrom Lair would be almost empty.

Kate approached the Maelstrom Lair again and prepared herself for whatever she would meet there.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dragon had long passed Maelstrom Lair when Strange Odd Shadow woke up.

“Where am I? What happened? Why do I have such a headache?” he first said weakly and dizzily.

“Oh! You’re awake! Don’t worry, Shadow! It was all done for your own and the Universe’s good! You’re far too important for the Universe and your friends to be lost in such a way!” Dragon replied.

“What do you mean?! Wait! The battle! The cube! The Vortex! Why are you taking me towards Castle Kingdom? Turn around! Wait! Where’s Kate? Don’t tell me she’s going to the Vortex!” Shadow exclaimed with more and more panic in his voice.

“Don’t worry about Kate! I don’t know what she’s doing, but she’s not confronting the Vortex! Dracula’s doing that!”

“Oh great! My friends are conspiring against me so that they can smash themselves! TURN AROUND YOU FOUL!” Shadow looked at his backpack for a second “He has the cube, hasn’t he?” He didn’t wait for Dragon to nod “The chances that he will survive are so few! I did not want Dracula to smash! He always seemed so disappointed by life that I wished he would fix it in the end. Now that it seemed there was hope for that, he’s heading for his doom!” He had finally accepted that what was going to happen was going to happen.

Tears were threatening to pour out of his eyes, but Shadow tried to hold them. He didn’t like to cry in front of others. However, something was picking his curiosity in his brain. It was as if his brain was itchy and he had to scratch it. He had almost noticed something when he looked at the backpack, but he did not look again due to his sadness. In the end, he gave in to curiosity and looked again. There was a hole in his backpack!

“Brick it! When did this happen?! I hope something has not fallen!” he exclaimed.

Dragon wondered what had happened. It seemed weird to him that Shadow’s mood had changed so rapidly. But he did not look back. They were still in the Vortex Zone and he had his eyes in front of him at some Maelstrom meteorites he was flying through. Besides more dangers could appear any moment.

“What happened?!” he asked.

Shadow did not answer, because he was concentrated in looking at his backpack, trying to find out whether anything important was missing. And indeed something *was* missing.

“Holy Crux! This is a catastrophe!”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dracula had succeeded in avoiding almost all of the attacks the Vortex had sent him so far. Even one or two he hadn’t managed to dodge had barely damaged his rocket. The Maelstrom Lair always seemed to be very close to the Vortex, but there was quite a distance between them. Now, Dracula was more than halfway there, but he was very terrified. The cube in his hands had started shaking and it seemed as if it tried to leave his hands. It seemed to be pulled by the Vortex. Actually, he himself was being pulled, but the pull of the cube was an extra one. And the closer he got the stronger it got.

Suddenly, his rocket was in fire. Maelstrom flames had managed to hit him. The rocket’s system failed, its engine stopped working and some lightning managed to hit it finishing the job. Yet, Dracula was prepared for this. The instant the flames had touched his rocket, he got another rocket out of his pocket and it swelled until it got to its normal size. Before the rocket was destroyed destroying him with it, he jumped onto the other rocket which started flying next to the other. But Dracula had to make it now, for he had not other rocket.

He looked in front of him, at the two evil eyes of the Vortex, which had turned out to be gigantic. Their light was everywhere around him. He was sure that if there was any air around him, he would now be encircled by their white to light purple light. He was getting close now. Actually, there was indeed some air around him now. Matter that the Vortex had pulled towards it in order to suck it. And the closer he got the stronger the light around him seemed to be.

Then, Dracula felt it. It was a terrible pain at every centimetre of his body. And the pain got stronger like the light. Dracula realised that the Vortex was slowly smashing him just because he was near it. But Dracula endured it.

He had now done more than three quarters of the trip. Then, another light appeared. It was coming out of the cube, which now seemed to have slightly opened. A light blue light was coming out of it.

The combined lights now seemed to have fully encompassed Dracula. He closed his eyes. He was so sad everything would end this way. He was always a disappointment to his father, who had wanted him to be a terrible vampire like he was. His father always told him that even his brother who had ended up becoming a vendor was better than him since he was successful. Dracula always tried to please him. Even after he met Shadow, who persuaded him he didn’t have to become terrible, he still tried to become successful at something. Even now, that his father was not anymore alive, Dracula thought he had to find a way to make him proud.

The other people did not help. In his efforts to become what his father wanted him to be, he had caused rumours about him to be spread. Although no one really knew *he* was the rumoured vampire, no one –almost no one the last few months– liked him.

Then, a bright thought came to him. Perhaps, in this way he could both make his father proud and become a hero among the Nexus-Forcers. This would probably be the end, but it would make up for all the mistakes he had done in his life.

He was almost there now, most probably. He did not know, because even if he opened his eyes, the light wouldn’t let him see where was. Then, the pull got too strong for him and the cube left his hand. And then he was no longer conscious…

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dragon and Shadow had not yet gotten out of the Vortex Zone. Rockets were not as fast as spaceships and the pull of the Vortex did not let them go with full speed. That’s why the trip seemed to be very slow. At that moment, however, as Shadow thought for the millionth time the consequences of losing that object, they heard the sound of a huge explosion. Looking over their shoulders, the two men saw a light blue sphere that seemed to be made of light or flames or something in between to have replaced the Maelstrom Vortex. It had worked. . .

### Chapter 41: The Dueling has begun!

Duke Arthur Exeter blocked again. The maniac Mordray was fighting as fiercely as he could, trying to smash the brave Leader of the Sentinels. Arthur had managed to defend himself well enough. He had some new injuries, but so did Mordray. During their duel, they constantly, but slowly moved without looking where they were going. Now, they had gotten away from the main battle and were slowly going towards the centre of the town.

Both men had more experience than in their past duel and Exeter also had a better sword. Thus, it seemed that he had the advantage. However, he was also tired and wounded from all the previous fighting. One couldn’t tell who would win.

Another slash came toward him, but Exeter used his shield to protect himself. The next attack though was more successful. Mordray’s movement disarmed Arthur and his sword jettisoned away. As he blocked another strike with his shield, the Duke looked at where his blade had fallen. It wasn’t too far. Suddenly, before Mordray could attack again Arthur threw his shield onto his face and then ran for his sword. He covered the last of the distance with a jump and grabbed Caliburn. Yet, as he stood up again, Mordray who had followed him till there gave him a cut on his forehead.

Exeter felt the acute pain above his eye and struck back. The battle continued.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

“E… Ex… Exavier!” Overbuild stammered.

Doctor Albert Overbuild had heard of the rumours of the Darkitect and knew Shadow’s story, it was wholly different to see the leader of Maelstrom in front of him. He of all the leaders had been the one most affected by Typhonus’s betrayal. And that was because the Baron had been a good friend of his.

Albert had first met him when he went to University. They didn’t study the same things, but there were many classes in which they were together. They instantly became friends recognizing a genius in each other. They remained so throughout all of the years of University, post-graduate studies and one year after. Then, Typhonus left and he seemed to disappear. Years later, he appeared again. He said he had been absorbed by his research on the civilization of the First Builders. He said he was looking for the Imagination Nexus and he believed they were the key. Overbuild was amazed at the idea of finding the Nexus, but he would have followed his good friend Exavier anyway.

And so the journey began. Exavier also found two more people to help them, some Arthur Exeter, a Knight Duke from Britay and a Pirate Captain called Hael Storm. Albert even met Exavier’s young apprentice Vanda Darkflame. But she did not come with them. The Baron did not allow her. After that Albert spent years with the other three searching for the mysterious Nexus. And when they finally found it, the time when they should be jubilant, Exavier decided to show his true self. And the Maelstrom happened.

But even then, seventeen years later, Dr. Overbuild could not believe that the Baron had really betrayed them. He said he knew him for years and that there was no way he could have done that. He argued it wasn’t really Exavier that created the Spider Boss. But the other Leaders weren’t so sure. Even Vanda, who was his apprentice and assistant, did not seem to be so optimistic.

“I am no Exavier Typhonus, Albert!” the Darkitect replied as he got off his chariot “Although he was very useful to me, he isn’t but a mere minifigure! Do you really think that anyone, but the Maelstrom itself, could master Maelstrom?”

“I knew it! I knew that you weren’t really the Baron!” Overbuild, who now didn’t seemed to be stunned anymore, exclaimed happily.

“Oh, what a pity! You’ve been telling them for seventeen years and now that you really can prove it, you’ll get smashed!” the Darkitect answered grinning evilly “It was fun impersonating him making you accuse Typhonus, but now it’s time for the truth to be revealed. The consciousness of the Maelstrom will take the credit now!”

An odd thing happened then. Something like Maelstrom Aura started spreading around the Darkitect as he walked forward like a cloud. Albert knew what it was, though. The air around him was being infected. The Darkitect was using his full infecting power! The ground under him got infected as well. Soon the cloud of Maelstrom Air had fully covered the Darkitect. But the infection kept spreading.

Albert looked at Vanda. She was lying on the ground unconscious from the fall. The Assembly Leader realised that if he left her the cloud would soon cover her, too. And then she’d be gone for. The Doctor ran to her and lifted her with one of his mechanical arms; he couldn’t have lifted her with his own arms. At that moment, the woman opened her eyes again and looked around dizzily.

“DOCTOR!” she cried as Albert carried her.

Overbuild quickly turned around and saved himself jumping the last moment. Some lightning had been conjured against him from the cloud of Maelstrom Air. Immediately, more lightning appeared, but this time Albert was ready and blocked with some Imagination lightning of his own. And so the duel started.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The sun had set many minutes ago and now it was dark. Yet, Arthur and Mordray were still fighting. Exeter did not know how long they could go on like that. Each one of them seemed to have blocked or dodged thousands of strikes of the other. And they had also managed some hits onto one another, too. But this battle seemed to be pointless. The most possible result, Arthur was thinking, was that in the end both of them would fall down from exhaustion.

Yet, it was at that moment that something happened and everyone saw it. A huge Imagination explosion had replaced the Maelstrom Vortex. Then, it started slowly diminishing and in the end nothing was left. No Vortex was there anymore. Shadow’s plan had worked properly. The explosion lighted the whole world and probably other worlds, too. When the Vortex had been disinfected, the sun appeared again beside it, giving some of its light again. It was setting though again, this time behind some mountains.

Mordray was distracted by this longer than Arthur. The Duke knew this was his best chance to finish this battle. Thus, he didn’t just slash his sword against his opponent, but also gathered some of its Imagination power. He didn’t do that often, because it required much power, but it made strikes much stronger. The sword glowed more brightly as he hit Mordray on his chest.

There was a light blue light, due to the release of Imagination energy and Mordray was jettisoned away and hit a wall hard.

*What a waste of a minifig!* Exeter thought as he turned his back to him, thinking that if he wasn’t already smashed, he would soon. He looked in front of him and saw something purple way ahead.

*Is it...? Oh, no!* the Duke thought and started running.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Strange Odd Shadow looked at the point where the Vortex used to be.

“Well, at least he accomplished the mission!” he said sadly “But we really have to go to Castle Kingdom! Let me help accelerate this thing a bit!”

They were already going faster since there was no Vortex to pull them anymore. But Shadow raised his arms and stretched them towards his left and right. Then, Imagination glowed in his hands and the rocket started going much faster. It wouldn’t be long till they were there.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Vanda Darkflame looked at the Darkitect. She hadn’t heard him saying he wasn’t Typhonus since she had been unconscious. Thus, looking at him brought back painful memories; memories that weren’t painful themselves, but they became so when she thought of what followed them.

Vanda had been just a child when Baron Exavier Typhonus found her; a poor orphan child wandering the streets trying to find a way to survive and sleeping in dark dirty alleys, many times with no dinner having preceded her sleep. But when Typhonus met her, all of this changed. Typhonus was walking in one of those alleys of the “underground” side of the city. He was searching for a minifigure who had some substance he wanted, which apparently was illegal. That substance was Imagination, of course, but Vanda did not know that then. That day, Vanda had tried to rob the Baron. Long story short, she failed miserably. But the Baron instead of taking her to the police or punishing her himself, decided to take her as his apprentice. He had seen potential in her.

In the following years, Typhonus taught and trained the girl as well as researched about the Nexus. He taught her in the ways of the ninja, which he knew, too, even though he didn’t use them a lot, and how she could always turn the enemy’s powers against him.

Typhonus had also told her that her family used to be a strong family. It was in her blood to be the stealthy secretive and mysterious fighter she became. But the Darkflames had been destroyed by their enemies.

“Except for this one, apparently!” Typhonus had said when he explained to her the story of her family, which happened to be known to him.

Vanda came to admire the man who had saved her, taught her all she knew and explained her why she had lived such a terrible childhood. She was really disappointed when Typhonus didn’t let her come with him in his expedition. No wonder, she was shocked when Overbuild came in contact with her to tell her what the Baron had done. Her whole world collapsed in a second. And she was never the same.

Now, seeing the distorted form of her old master emerge from the cloud of Maelstrom Air and start fighting with Albert was plain torture for her. She was watching the duel, but she didn’t feel she’d be able to fight. She didn’t even know how Albert could. He was as bond with Typhonus as she was and he had never lost his faith on him; at least not completely.

Some Maelstrom energy shaped like a blade was sent against Albert by Darkitect’s spare hand. The other holding his staff was still conjuring lightning, which still collided with Overbuild’s lightning. The Maelstrom energy hit the mechanical arm holding Vanda and it was cut.

Vanda fell down, but she still didn’t recover. And before she could, purple ropes appeared around her and tied her. Could the Darkitect be confronting them both at the same time?

The leader of Maelstrom launched some Maelstrom blasts, but Albert’s other mechanical arm shielded them with its ice saw. However, it started being infected and Overbuild had to drop it. More blasts came, but Albert blocked them with obstacles he made with bricks from around. Albert thought, being surprised himself, he was doing pretty well up to now.

It was then that the cube exploded and disinfected the Vortex. The peculiar thing, though, was that the Darkitect shouted “NOOOOOO!” before it happened. Probably, his consciousness can be split and be in many places and so he was watching Dracula with the eyes of the Vortex.

For a moment after that Overbuild’s lightning advanced towards the Darkitect and it seemed he had the advantage. But then the Architect of the Dark started fighting even more fiercely than before. His lightning advanced even more than the Imagination one had just seconds ago and he conjured Maelstrom blasts as fast as he could. Purple flames appeared around the Doctor, but he created an Imagination shield. Arm-like things of purple smoke appeared out of the Maelstrom Air which was still there slowly spreading, but Albert summoned an Imagination Wisp, which protected him. His other mechanical arm was destroyed, too. And it seemed that the next time he’d be hit on the chest, but then Arthur appeared.

Exeter ran towards the Darkitect with his sword drawn. He thought he could fight him just with it. But he was very wrong. The Evil Being just moved his arm and Arthur was flung on a wall. Something like a purple ribbon was conjured by his spare hand and it flew to the Duke. Then, it wrapped around his neck and started choking him.

“Arthur!” Overbuild shouted and he was distracted.

The lightning hit him on the chest and he was jettisoned on a wall, too. It was only pain after that.

“Well well well! It seems that I shall smash three leaders with one stone!” the Darkitect said with his cruel voice and laughed with his own joke. He turned to Overbuild “My friend! You’ll have the honour of being first!”

And another lightning was launched towards him. And Overbuild would have been smashed… if it wasn’t for Shadow’s timely return. An Imagination lightning appeared from his hands not even before he got out of Dragon’s rocket and it collided with the Darkitect’s protecting Dr. Overbuild. He jumped out of the rocket, which continued flying and landed on a street further.

“Look who it is! My old friend, the Darkitect! Last time I saw you, you were a bit smashed! Care to explain how come you’re here in brick and bone?” he said.

Under his confident attitude, though, fear was hidden. He hadn’t yet fully mastered the art of the Imagination lightning, which Overbuild was teaching him. Hence, he knew that he wouldn’t last long in a duel against the Darkitect himself.

“Well, first of all, as I suppose you know I am the consciousness of the Maelstrom! As long as Maelstrom exists, so will my spirit whether I have a body or not!” the Darkitect started saying, although he was outraged to see his old nemesis interrupt his duel.

“Of course!”

“Well, even when I’m just a spirit, I still have some of my –how do you call them– Superian powers! Thus, I just made sure that a man named Billy Vardon with the power to possess the bodies of others would get infected. I think you can figure out the rest!”

“Indeed I can!”

“I was longing for this meeting, Strange Odd Shadow, although I hoped I’d get the Leaders in my hands first! I really wish to crash you after what you did six months ago! You really ruined my plans then! But now, it’s time for… Round Two!” the Darkitect spoke and then he attacked. . .

### Chapter 42: The End is approaching!

Platinum and Rad were running with five more people in one of the streets of the town. Maelstrom was chasing them from behind. They had been losing the battle and now were retreating to find a better place to fight them.

However, as they ran they almost bumped into another team of six people. Lemon was among them. Platinum and Lemon looked at each other and exclaimed in perfect chorus: “They’re chasing us!”

That was the end of it. They would now be circled and they wouldn’t be able to survive long.

“Perhaps, we could meet them here!” suggested a minifigure pointing to a dead end. It was Expie Botie, who was holding a Heavy Staff bought from Achilles Plutarch “They won’t be able to surround us and it’s narrower giving us the advantage of fighting few at a time!”

It seemed logical, so they followed his advice. They got in the short alley that ended to a dead end. There they waited. But they never came. The minifigures were so concentrated in the incoming enemies that they didn’t even notice the annihilation of the Vortex, which happened some minutes later. But a little bit after that they realised that their enemies should have reached them by now.

Platinum got out of the too-short-to-be-an-alley place and had a look. And then he laughed. The Maelstrom was retreating. There were only some Exsules confused at what had happened and whether they should keep fighting or retreat as well.

“They’re retreating! Come!” he bellowed to the others and charged.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

There were few places on the Wall where people were still fighting the Maelstrom and the Exsules. In one of them, the remaining minifigures noticed that the Darklings were thinning out till there were only few. A Nexus Knight looked at the valley in front of him and the Maelstrom.

“Look!” he suddenly shouted jubilantly “I can see ground over the Maelstrom! They have run out of reinforcements! If we defeat these, we will be victorious!”

His friend, another Nexus Knight noticed something else “Are they… retreating? Oh my brick! They’re retreating! They’re leaving! Look!”

Indeed most of the Maelstrom Beings were fleeing. With the Maelstrom Vortex annihilated, the Maelstromlings were afraid, because they had gone weaker. They knew they couldn’t win anymore.

Some minifigures were chasing them. They wanted to smash as many of them as possible before they had gotten away. And the minifigures got more and more. Others started shooting them with several projectiles. Things were going very good!

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Shadow and the Darkitect were still dueling. He had managed to block all of the attacks the Lord of Evil had used. Nevertheless, he was losing the lightning battle. The Maelstrom lightning was getting closer by the minute; and if it reached him… Shadow had felt the pain a Maelstrom lightning can cause. But he knew this would also smash other than torture.

The lightning had now almost reached his hands and Shadow embraced his fate. But he wasn’t going to close his eyes. Firstly, he didn’t want to give the Darkitect the pleasure of showing he had given up on his life. And secondly, every time he closed his eyes something miraculously happened and saved him. And there was still some hope in him. This time he wouldn’t wait with closed eyes. He would see on his own whether he was going to be smashed or not.

At that moment some other Imagination lightning was conjured and hit the Darkitect sending him flying on the wall. Shadow looked at its source: Dr. Overbuild. It seemed he had recovered a bit from the hit, but hadn’t stood up. Shadow smiled to him. Overbuild tried to return it, but it was more of a grimace than a smile.

Shadow turned to the Darkitect again. He was in the middle of getting up when the Imagination Blast hit him. The Darkitect couldn’t believe it. Could a mere lightning and an Imagination Blast weaken him so much, even with the Vortex gone? As he fell down, he realised what it was. His body! It was weak. Not only did it get tired and weakened faster and easier, but it was also being destroyed by his chaotic nature. He realised that no body could fit him for long anymore. Unless there was some perfect body! If there was, he would find it.

He looked at the minifigures gathered there. Darkflame and Exeter were released from the ropes and the ribbon. He knew that none of these minifigures was proper. Much too much Imagination! But he could take advantage of them to get away. And his nature would also destroy the one he would pick. As much as he hated the leaders, Strange Odd Shadow had become his arch-nemesis now. He wanted his destruction more than any other minifigure’s.

Shadow felt as if something was getting inside him. He looked back and saw the Darkitect’s body having turned to dust.

*Oh no!* he thought *He’s inside me!*

The presence of the Darkitect felt as if some kind of Makryphyton was inside him spreading its branches and roots all over his body and around his organs. However, Shadow was not going to give up his body so easily. He fought; fought with his spirit; fought with his soul. And his being full of Imagination did its work. He felt the branches and the roots of the Darkitect’s spirit being burnt, shrinking and retreating. The Darkitect had made a mistake in his choice. For this was a body he could not stand. So much Imagination. It was hurting him and not the opposite. Shadow heard a scream. In the start he thought it was just in his mind, but then realised that it was in the real world as well. And he was the one screaming. Or actually the Darkitect through his mouth. But then he was gone. And Shadow was free.

“I had warned you, Darkitect! Beware of the shadows!” and then he laughed, because yet again he had defeated the Darkitect “Anyway, I really have to go now! I lost something and have to find it!”

And Shadow would go, if it wasn’t already too late.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The Maelstrom was retreating. Among them there was a Stromling. One simple Stromling that wasn’t even elite. It was running, too. But it soon tripped on something. It stood up, so as not to be trampled and looked at the object it had tripped on. It was a pile of bricks, probably fallen from some backpack. But having kicked the pile the Stromling had revealed something else, something much more interesting.

Stromlings’ eyesight, apart from being blurry, had more faults. Stromlings usually could not recognise colours. They only see in black, white and gray. But actually there were two colours, or some shades of those colours they could see: Maelstrom Purple and Imagination Blue.

This little rock-like thing the Stromling was looking at was Imagination Blue and was shining. Actually, a light blue beam was coming out of it, but it stopped onto a brick. The Stromling felt a strong a hatred for the thing, but also felt a strong temptation to take it. And so it grabbed the Imagination Shard.

The Shard caused a pain like scorching. But the Stromling did not let it go. It had to infect it, so that it would be its own. Infecting it became its own purpose those moments. The Stromling saw an injured Maelstrom Dragon Invader and came near it. It put the Shard onto the Dragon while it started using its full infecting power. Similar thoughts came to the Dragon upon seeing the Shard and so it used its infecting power as well. It even breathed infecting flames onto it. The Stromling reached for a bottle in its backpack. All Stromlings were equipped with this, but they rarely used it, since they were not smart enough to think of using it. Its content was infected water, a very infectious substance. It poured all of it onto the Shard. And then the pain stopped.

The Stromling raised its arm holding the Shard, which had now been infected and a Maelstrom Beam shot out of it towards the sky. . .

### Chapter 43: The Shard and the King

Strange Odd Shadow watched the Maelstrom beam rise towards the sky. This was bad! Very bad! Shadow had found an Imagination Shard in Deadly Desert. Shadow had lost an Imagination Shard in Castle Kingdom. And an Imagination Shard had now been infected.

“I have to leave!” Shadow said to the Leaders and started running. Perhaps there was still hope to restore the Shard.

Duke Exeter finally managed to catch his breath and stand up. He felt humiliated. Not only had he been so easily defeated by the Darkitect, but also it was two Assembly people that had defeated the one who had beaten him. He looked around; Vanda had just gotten up, too. A tear was rolling on her cheek. Arthur realised how painful it must have been for her to see her old master. He even felt pity for her. That surprised him. Pity was close to compassion and compassion was close to sympathy. And the Duke did not like Vanda.

However, Overbuild caused him even more worry. For some reason, he was still down where the hit of the Darkitect had left him. Was there some problem? Arthur would have figured he was pretty well to be able to attack the Darkitect again. He ran to him. Albert seemed to be worried, too.

“Arthur! I can’t move my legs! I can’t stand up!” he said in an almost panicked way.

Exeter felt terrible. How could such a thing be happening? His friend Albert becoming disabled! This shouldn’t be happening. Not to Albert!

“Arthur, look!” Vanda called and pointed to some minifigures, more tears now shining on her cheeks.

Two minifigures were approaching from another street carrying a third minifigure. The man was much wounded. His long curly brown hair was hanging from his head…

“Hael!” Exeter cried and ran to him “Who did this to him?!”

“The leader of the Exsules, sir!” said one of the minifigures carrying him.

“Poor Hael! Don’t you know that you cannot defeat such enemies?” Arthur soliloquized.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Strange Odd Shadow was not the only one to see the Maelstrom Beam rising. Most of the Nexus Force side saw it. But all of the Maelstrom side felt it. They felt their change of power. And looking back they saw the Beam. Then, every one of the creatures that had started fleeing returned and they attacked more fiercely than before. The battle had not ended.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Panagis walked in the very same street in which Hael had been walking earlier. He had been notified that there was a dangerous enemy. Indeed they met next to a building which was on fire and lighted them in the darkness that was growing and thickening after the sunset.

Panagis looked at the leader of the Exsules for a second and the leader of the Exsules looked at him. He knew instantly that it was him they had been talking about. Around them, teams of minifigures, reinforcements, constantly passed by them going towards the main battle. But neither of them even blinked at the sight of them. They didn’t care about them.

“So, you are the man they called so dangerous!” Panagis said in a way that showed his contempt.

“And who are you?” the Exsule asked.

“I am Panagis, President of the Council of Castle Kingdom and Commander of this Castle! Also, I am your future defeater! But do not worry! Even though I could easily destroy you, I’ll fight fairly and only use my sword!” Panagis challenged the man and with that he let down his shield, even though it seemed that he had been talking about something more than his shield.

In a moment the short distance between them had been covered and the now familiar to everyone clanging of swords was heard. The two men’s arms were moving like a hummingbird’s wings. They were also constantly moving left or right, backwards or forwards or doing circles. Neither of them could manage a single blow on the other.

Panagis, according to Shadow at least, could be a man of questionable ethics. Nonetheless, he was a supreme swordfighter. That on its own explains the way he raised on the first steps of Figerregnum’s social and perhaps political ladder. Thus, he could easily fight with even the Exsules’ greatest Knight, their King.

To an outsider this duel could also look like a dance or something. The way each one of them used a combo of attacks and the other a combo of movements to block the hits of the other was like choreography. Yet in actuality, it was a smashing game. Whoever lost lost forever.

Panagis smirked. His opponent had done a wrong move, which allowed him with three more blows to disarm him.

“Good night, my knight!” Panagis said kicking the man throwing him down.

Having no mercy, unlike Exeter, he smashed the Exsule not even hesitating. And that did not even bother him. Panagis even felt pleasantly. He was indeed a supreme swordfighter. But he indeed had questionable ethics, too.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Shadow’s running was at vain. The more he ran, the more the Beam seemed to get away from him. Indeed the Shard was being moved from infected hand to infected hand towards a particular direction. And Shadow hadn’t even reached the Wall, when he saw the Beam disappear and some kind of space shuttle shoot to the sky. It was too late to save the Shard. . .

### Chapter 44: Escape from the Lair

It had long been since Kate had landed with her rocket near the mountain passage of the Maelstrom Lair with the light of the cube’s explosion encompassing her. As Shadow had forecast it, the Maelstrom Lair had been unaffected by the explosion.

Kate knew that landing among the mountains that were next to the city of the Lair would find her farther from her target than she could be. However, the mountains covered her from the eyes of anyone watching (unless there were Darklings on the mountains, too) and Kate wished to transact this mission with as much secrecy as possible.

She had now passed the narrow passage between two of the mountains and had found herself in the city. Many skyscrapers were around her. But like the last time, there was one building that distinguished: the Maelstrom Tower, much taller than any of the skyscrapers. The central street started where the passage ended, but Kate took a different route where it would be less probable to be seen by someone.

The feeling of the air being solid, your steps being too tiring for one step and your heart being heavy this time followed her even inside the city. However, it wasn’t as strong as last time and so Kate could be going faster. She really wanted to be quick, because she didn’t know how long the battle would go on and because she remembered that if you stayed too long in Maelstrom Lair you smashed.

She was now quite close to the Tower. She could see its entrance even from the little road she was in. At that moment, she heard someone running. He was on the Central Street and was going too fast to notice her even if they happened to be crossing a street at the same time. It was a Stromling, one little simple Stromling. Kate felt the temptation to shoot it with the bow she was holding. However, she thought that if someone watched, they’d see the Stromling smashing. So, she left it.

The Stromling, which was holding some kind of package, reached the gates of the Tower and they opened for it to pass. Meanwhile, Kate hadn’t stopped going forward and now she was only some blocks away. She quickly walked another few metres when she felt that the feeling of something trying to stop her got a bit stronger. She looked around to see if something had changed. Indeed at the top of the Tower she saw a Maelstrom Beam rising towards the sky. Now, the Maelstrom Tower lacked no detail to be an exact Maelstrom replica of Nexus Tower.

As a horn was heard, Kate realised that the Stromling might have been carrying an infected Shard. Perhaps, she should have shot it after all. There were more problems to worry about, though. While the horn still sounded, the gates of the Tower were widely opened and something that looked like a parade of Maelstrom got out. It was the Maelstrom Beings that got rebuilt in the Cave of Chaos Recreation of the Maelstrom Lair. They were pouring out of the Tower, perhaps to return to the battle, perhaps not. Whatever they wanted though, it was sure that they might cause problems to Kate. She put an arrow on her bow and continued her way.

Now, she was covering the last distance, walking the last block. However, when she reached the end of it, she stayed there. She waited for the Maelstrom to stop appearing. Perhaps, she could even take advantage of the situation by sneaking in before the gates had closed. One Stromling like Murgle Blotch came to Kate’s direction. She went back, so that when she’d attack him it wouldn’t be seen by others. The Stromling turned in that road and for one second did not notice Kate, continuing walking. Then, a series of arrows were launched against him and he was smashed. Luckily, he was still in the weak form after the rebuild.

No other Maelstromling came towards her. Soon the last Maelstrom Being got out. Kate waited for a moment, but then saw the gates starting to slowly close. Kate got out of her hiding spot and ran. She was more than halfway there when some Darklings noticed her. Only one of them had a ranged weapon, but it was hit by an arrow on its arm before it could attack. The others ran after the girl, who was running backwards to shoot arrows. She only managed to smash one of them, a weak one, before she got inside. However, she was saved by the closing gates.

“Well, that was close!” she said to herself hearing a knife hit the gate just the moment it closed.

Kate was relieved to have reached this place, but she realised she didn’t have much of a plan. She didn’t know where the prisoners were held and the place was huge. She checked all of the doors apart from the one that led to the Darkitect’s throne room, where they had gone the previous time. Most of them were locked, but even the ones that weren’t didn’t seem to be dungeons. After exploring them a little, she came to the same conclusion. One of the doors led to a stairway. She climbed that and got to the second level. It was then it dawned on her she could try to locate her sister with her power!

She felt her some floors above her. She started climbing the stairs, landing after landing when she bumped into Admiral Flogmore. For a second they both looked at each other surprised. Then, with a quick move Kate drew her dagger and put it on Flogmore’s neck.

“Try anything stupid and you’re smashed!” she said to him.

She was going to let him go, once she was sure she could continue when she heard voices from below. She was being chased! She couldn’t let Flogmore lead them to her. She started pushing him to go forward not leaving her dagger from its place. She knew that if she tried to smash him, she would delay too much; Flogmore was not in his weak form. They ascended the rest of the stairs till the prisons as quickly as they could. Kate was surprised to see Flogmore didn’t try any tricks; he was quite obedient. However, it seemed that the voices had gotten closer.

The level with the cages was different than the usual circle-full-of-doors-hall. The room she ended up was indeed circular, but many hallways started from it. Each hallway, instead of walls, had cages. It was then that it dawned on Kate that there were other prisoners, too. None of them was in a good state, but some of them were also partially infected. However, there weren’t many of them. Even though the prisoners lived in special conditions that allowed them to live more in Maelstrom Lair, it wasn’t usual for someone to live long there. They all eventually got smashed or infected.

Kate pushed Flogmore away from her and quickly changed to bow and arrow again. Aiming at him, she said: “Open the cells!”. Flogmore obeyed again. Why did he seem to be threatened here unlike in Crux Prime? He walked to a panel Kate had not noticed being on a wall. As he started pressing buttons on it, he looked at her curious face.

“You are one of those people!” he said with a voice that seemed to be too human for a Darkling “Those who came here the last time! If you survived the Darkitect so many times, why shouldn’t I be afraid of you?”

Firstly, Kate was surprised that he spoke. Secondly, that he thought reasonably. And thirdly, that he knew what she thought.

“How do yo-?” Kate started, but was cut off.

“The Darkitect has granted some of with more abilities than you realise!” the answer came again before the question had been asked.

All this time, Kate had not noticed that cells were being opened and people getting out surprised and not being sure whether they were actually being saved or whether this was some kind of trap, their next torture perhaps, or their being led to their smash. Yet, as the people who had been out all gathered in one spot, one of them who had infected and seemed to be wearing ruined Paradox gear said “Who are you?”

Kate looked at him “I have come to save you!”

“No one has ever come to save any minifigure that’s in here!” he argued.

“Well, this place was just discovered six months ago. And I came now, because the place is as empty as it can be only right now!” Kate explained.

The Paradox would have continued, but another man spoke “Don’t argue with her! She’s really come to save us! I sense her Imagination, not her Maelstrom! I’d advise you to talk only after we are safe!”

Kate looked at the person who had talked. He was a man with black hair (although there were some few white hairs among them) and a beard, probably caused by his not being able to shave. He was wearing old, dirty, ragged, tatty, black, robe-like clothes. He also had a ragged cape. He had an expression on his face that would make anyone depressed. He was walking toward the centre of the floor with his arm around a girl’s back.

Kate recognised the girl as her sister almost immediately. Even though she was a grown and very crummy version of her, she was still her sister. Looking at her, Kate thought the worst thing about her were her frightened panicked eyes. An odd fact was that those two were the only ones who had not even a hint of infection.

“I’m done!” Flogmore said.

“Good!” Kate replied and turning to the rest “But we can’t go down! Maelstrom’s coming!”

The minifigures got uneasy, but the black-rags man said with a loud voice “There’s a spaceships bay some levels above. We could steal one of their ships. We’d need one anyway to get out of the world!”

They did not doubt that information. It was all they had. Everyone immediately ran for the stairs. They probably knew where they were from their “torture trips”. Kate waited for the others to go first. She was the only one with a weapon, so if the Maelstrom Beings arrived she would delay them for as long as she could. The black-rags man, who seemed to be helping her sister walk to the right places, because she didn’t seem to realise exactly what was happening or how she should react, raised his arms at one point and bricks flew out of Kate’s backpack creating a wall in front of the staircase leading to that level.

“That will delay them for a bit!” he said and then started climbing the other stairway with Kate’s sister.

Kate didn’t mind he took her sister with him. It seemed she was comfortable with him and Kate wasn’t sure if she would even recognise her. She’d leave the reunion for later.

At last, Kate started ascending, while the voices seemed to reach the other side of the brick wall the man had built. All of them (and they weren’t more than twenty people even though the prison could fit many more) were running and, so they put some distance between them and the Maelstrom before they smashed the wall. Kate didn’t see what Flogmore did after they left.

Several levels later, they reached the spaceship bay. To their luck, there was one ship, but it was the only one. The black-clothed man built another wall, thicker than the first one, while the others found a way to open the ramp of the little ship. Everyone got in, but the man, after whispering something to the girl went to some panels saying “Someone has to open the gate for the ship to pass!”. Kate’s sister gave him a worried look and stayed where he had left her. She then looked at Katie for a bit, almost pleadingly.

“Won’t you come?!” the man with the infected feet appeared on the ramp.

“Take her!” the black-wearing man commanded Kate with a worried glance at the wall, from where voices were being heard and the sound of metal hitting on the bricks.

Kate ran and grabbed the girl, who seemed to want to resist to leaving the man, but not having the courage or the power to do it. Kate got on the ramp and made for the interior of the ship, which already had started hovering over the floor. As Kate ran she looked over her shoulder and saw several things happening; the gate had almost opened entirely, but it was enough for them to pass anyway; the ship was already moving; the ramp was being raised; the wall had been broken and the Maelstrom poured in –Flogmore was among them; the man waved goodbye and then looking at the Maelstrom coming for him he went to the edge of the Tower where the gate had opened.

The last second before the ramp hag closed completely, Kate saw him jump. And then a few seconds later they were flying towards the sky. . .

### Chapter 45: They have a Cave Troll!

Shadow took a moment to take in his failure and all that it meant. His tries to annihilate the Vortex had almost been at vain. Dracula’s sacrifice had almost been at vain. The Maelstrom would soon be able to restore its old power with this. If Shadow had not lost it, it would have been the Nexus Force that would have the Shard and would become twice as powerful as it was before.

Yet, the battle was not finished yet. Maelstrom was returning and now a crowd appeared near Shadow. The boy didn’t see anyone else close, so he started running towards a different direction from the one of the Maelstrom mob.

Soon he found himself in front of one of those structures, one of which Hael Storm had found, too. The only difference was that this one also had gates on the top of it. Shadow got up the stairs quickly and got to the other side of the gates, which were now closing; some Maelstrom had been seen coming towards them.

Shadow changed to Rank 3 Inventor Gear and waited among the other people gathered there. He noticed Saber Jetpack Cyborg and Turt Wig Train were there, too. Cyborg was a Sentinel that came from Castle Kingdom. He was over-strict and always followed the rules perfectly. Shadow had offered him to join his team after he helped them defeat the Darkitect six months ago, but he had refused. Officially at least, because there had been plenty times when they had worked together ever since On the other hand, Turt was an over-enthusiastic Assembly Engineer, who had been sent to Castle Kingdom and disregarded the rules almost as much as Shadow.

Some minifigures with ranged weapons had climbed onto the roof, above them, and had started raining their enemies with them. Suddenly, one of them screamed.

“THE TROLLS ARE HERE!”

At that point there was a muffled ‘bang’ on the gate.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The Maelstrom Beings at the edge of the Maelstrom’s army were looking forward to their turn to fight, smash, destroy, infect and bring Chaos! Many of them were actually hitting the ones in front of them on the head, so that they could take their place. There was a general havoc. But what was sure was that no one was looking back. And that was their mistake.

Horns were suddenly sounded from behind and the sound of clatter came to their ears. The horns sounded again, as the Maelstromlings looked back. But it was already too late for them. The horns were sounded for the third time as the dozens of Riders forming ‘Wedge Formations’ collided with the Darklings hitting them with their spears and swords, trampling them with their horses, sending them away with their shields.

The Riders, most of which had white horses, were carrying banners that either showed a red horse raised on its back legs in a green-white background split in four parts or two Towers connected by a wall in the same background.

As they passed through the lines of the Maelstrom Beings, all of which were surprised, they easily smashed many of them without losing many of their men or their momentum. Their horses were trained to keep running during battle.

The information started to sink in, both to the Maelstrom and the Nexus Force, who watched what was happening from the Wall. Reinforcements had arrived!

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The Trolls had destroyed the gates after some hits and then forced the minifigures to retreat, because they couldn’t fight the Trolls from close. If they tried to do so, the creatures would grab and toss them away or hit them on the head with their strong fists or something of the kind. Unfortunately, many of the minifigures on the roof did not have a good fate.

After destroying the structure, the Trolls turned their attention to the minifigures who were trying to shoot them down from the ground. They tried to get down the stairs with a few stairs, but one of them stumbled, fell down and then on the other Trolls.

There was a moment when the Trolls were still down, which everyone tried to take advantage of. A minifigure with ebony-coloured skin, a spear and an oval shield poked one of them with his spear on the back before the others reached them. The attack was unsuccessful, but the Troll growled and stood up. Everyone got away immediately. The Trolls, which were four, were now all up.

Shadow released his bees and summoned the Make Shift Buddy. Both of them attacked the nearest Troll, which was holding an oversized (for a minifigure at least) hammer. The summoned invention was soon a thousand pieces and many bees were mashed by the big hands of the annoyed Troll. The beast looked at Shadow and somehow realised he was the one who sent those attacks. It made two steps toward him and would have destroyed Shadow with is hammer. But then something happened, the memory of which Shadow will always remember as being in slow motion. The hammer was coming close to him. Shadow heard someone shout from next to him. He saw Cyborg having jumped towards his direction. He was pushed by him and was flung away. But then the hammer hit Cyborg and Cyborg smashed into many pieces, which flew towards many directions.

Shadow had fallen down now. He kept staring at the place where Cyborg used to be a few seconds ago. How could this happen that so many people Shadow liked smashed or got hurt? And so many of them just to save Shadow! The minifigure realised he had been the cause of the smashing of so many others that day. All this was overbearing. Shadow stopped working properly. His limbs started moving uncontrollably as if he was being electrocuted. Someone was screaming, but that might have been him.

The man with the spear threw his spear onto the chest of the Troll and it stayed there. The Troll made some weak and dizzy steps and then fell down. Shadow had been saved by this one, but there were others, too. One of them grabbed Shadow and then threw him on the wall of a nearby building. However, he didn’t fall down or smash his pieces jettisoning everywhere around. Shadow just vanished. . .

### Chapter 46: The Twin Towers

Sarah Darkon had returned to the battle a long time ago. Having brought Magical to the people who would take care of him, she had left to get back. Now, she was standing at the entrance of a gate. The gate had been previously broken, but the Nexus Force had retaken it when the Maelstrom was fleeing. Now they were fighting to defend it.

Sarah was surprised to see herself being among both Pirates and Ninja. They weren’t just fighting together, though. They were cooperating! This was one of the wonders of the Universe, as far as Sarah was concerned. Actually, they did a great job, much better than if each of them had worked alone. Not only were they defending successfully the gate, but they also had the choice to push their enemies away. However, they did not do that, because if they did they’d have enemies at their flanks as well.

Sarah slashed with her katana at a Maelstrom Scorpion that was in front of her. She poked it with her weapon and then attacked again. She had just smashed it when she heard the horns were heard. And everyone started wondering what was happening.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Dragon had been on the Wall when the horns sounded and he had seen the Riders. He had decided at that moment he had to reach them and ask them who they were and what were their intentions.

Now he was running towards the stable of the Iron Riders. It wasn’t long before he reached the place. He took one of the horses and mounted it. With the horse trotting on the paved roads of the city, he was soon at the breach of the Wall nearest to the place from which the Riders were coming. He was now riding among other Nexus Forcers and their allies. Then, he reached the frontline.

Dragon knew that this was risky. However, he thought that with the Riders also coming closer and closer he’d reach them before he was smashed. Besides, if there was any chance that the Riders were hostile after all, he had to know.

It was difficult for the horse to ride among Maelstrom Being it pushed and trampled many, but there were still enough who could attack them. Dragon, who had changed to Iron Rider panoply, took care of those.

Suddenly, he heard something behind him that did not sound like the usual noises the Maelstrom Beings produced. Dragon looked over his shoulder to see two more Riders coming behind him. It was Sir Talmid and Lady Mirabilia.

“What are you doing here?!” he bellowed to them.

“Whatever you are doing!” Mirabilia answered with a sheepish smile.

“We saw you take a horse and thought we should follow you! We were right that your idea might be crazy! But we are Iron Riders and we shall stick together!”

Dragon looked at them some more and then looked to his front again. He didn’t reply. He only shouted the Iron Riders’ slogan: “We shall ride to war! We shall fight with Iron!”

He was secretly glad that he had help. He wasn’t sure that he’d make it on his own. However, he had some other feelings, too, like worry for his friends.

Many of the enemies they met now were of the difficult kinds. At the moment they were passing through a herb of gigantic Maelstrom Spiders. Passing those, they found themselves surrounded by Stromling Goblins. Those were quite difficult to smash. They also met Stromling Dwarves, Stromling Elves (really hard enemies!), huge Maelstrom Worms, Maelstrom Ravens, Maelstrom Bats, Maelstrom Eagles and some of the usual enemies.

However, they managed to pass through all of these enemies. And then, while among some Electro-Flail Stromling Veterans they saw the Riders being behind those Stromlings, who actually had turned their attention to the green-white-clad Riders.

They managed to reach the other side without being electrocuted many times and then were riding among white horses. The three Iron Riders rode towards the middle of this force where they believed they would find the leader. Indeed, once they reached the middle formation they saw a Rider in the front wearing special armour and having a green waving cape. They turned towards him.

“I am Magical Heroic Dragon, leader of the Iron Riders of Ferrum Regnum. I have come here to ask you of your identity and of your intentions!” Dragon said once they were next to him.

The leading Rider had a look at him. He was a stunning, awe-inspiring man. He definitely made for a good leader.

“You made it from the Wall to here! Impressive! I’d heard of the Iron Riders, but I didn’t know you were so good fighters! I am Equovir, Commander of the Riders of the Twin Towers! We come from a Kingdom out of this valley at the other side of the Sorcerers’ Woods. It was founded by people who did not wish to take part in this stupid war between the Kingdoms. We stayed secret for long! However, learning the news of the Maelstrom attack, we decided to come to assist the Nexus Force. We are minifigures as well and we understand what the benefit of ours and of the Universe is!”

Dragon smiled. They had an ally in these Riders. And it was a strong ally!

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

One Ninja was hit by a Maelstrom Rhino being flung away. The Ninja remained lying on the ground for a bit, so that he could first catch his breath. Meanwhile, lying on the back, his eyes were looking above him. And then he realised what he was looking at. It was a marvel!

“THE SPACESHIPS! THE SPACESHIPS HAVE WON!!! THEY COME TO HELP US!!!”

### Chapter 47: Ending

The Black Knight and Milancillia were fighting together among some other Nexus Knights. They were trying to push the enemies out of a breach. However, for a moment everyone was occupied by watching the Spaceships descending towards them! The most incredible of all was the Venture Explorer. No one knew how it had been saved. They only knew it had come to help them.

The first explosion occurred then. Maelstrom was blast towards all directions as an Imagination bomb landed onto their masses. More bombs, as well as missiles, lasers and other things, followed. The Maelstrom was in panic. They didn’t know what they should do. So, they fought more fiercely than ever. Desperation drove them to their limits. Of course, others that were away from them fled. But it was not them they were fighting.

A Maelstrom Lion hit Milancillia with its claw.

“No!” shouted the last of the Black Knights and struck back at the Lion, putting so much force to it that the creature smashed.

The Black Knight turned his attention to the girl, who had fallen down. She had been hit on the chest. Her breastplate had been destroyed and a bad injury was visible through it.

“Are you okay? I think you need medication!” the man said with an unfamiliar feeling of worry starting to overtake his heart.

“No, I think I’m good!” Milancillia answered, her adrenaline not letting her feel any pain.

Yet, she was still lying down, unable to stand up. The man was about to say something about this when he got a bow on his back and fell down as well. The sound of bones breaking caused ominous feelings to the Black Knight. Both of them were lying now. Every now and then they felt the ground being shaken by some explosion. They had both started feeling the pain of their injuries now. It was becoming unbearable.

“Perhaps, you were right! About the medication thing!” Milancillia told him, her vision having turned blurry due to pain.

The girl fainted before anyone came to carry them to the Sanatorium, but the Black Knight stayed conscious until they came. Then, everything blacked out for him as well.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Myrror looked below him. There was a sea of Maelstrom bricks. The Paradox were going to party! He watched the remnant of the Maelstrom army fleeing. Minifigures were everywhere in the battlefield chasing the creatures. He smiled. They had won. Looking from the Wall, it was apparent they had won. It was not known to everyone though. He could hear the cheers around him spreading. Those who didn’t know; who couldn’t see, they learnt the news by the others.

Maelstrom had given a last fight after the ships arrived, but soon they were defeated. They had done it! They had to fight from dawn to dusk and even further, but they had managed to save the Universe… for now at least. Maelstrom had been weakened in this battle. But Maelstrom would soon recover and it would fight even harder. Myrror knew nothing had ended. But this was time for celebrations!

The man joined the others. Among all those who celebrated, there were also sad faces. There were people who could not forget their losses even this victorious jubilant moment. And this reminded Myrror that even though it was time for celebrations, tomorrow the mourning would start. Myrror thought of his own losses. He hadn’t seen Shadow’s ship among the ones who had fought the land enemies. He hoped there was an explanation to that. He could not think of Strange Odd Shadow being smashed in a destroyed spaceship. And there were others. His master…

Suddenly, a familiar elderly voice brought Myrror back to reality “Well, that was good work!”. The man looked back to see Mardolf the Orange in flesh and bricks!

“Mardolf! You’re alive!” he exclaimed.

“Of course I am! No collapsing tower can smash me!” said the old man “Now, Myrror why are you not cheerful like all the other fellows?”

“I was thinking of our losses!”

“You’ll have enough time to think of them! Your whole life actually! But… I think you can spare some time and enjoy yourself right now!”

Myrror smiled. If only Mardolf knew the truth about him, he wouldn’t be saying that. Myrror knew that very well. But he could talk to no one about this!

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

It was way after midnight when a rocket approached Castle Kingdom. It landed near its centre. Kate got out of it. She wanted to find Shadow to tell him the news and to check he was alright. She knew this could be difficult, so she had already used her powers to locate him. She had landed near enough.

She ran towards the place where she had sensed he was. Soon she reached the place where the Trolls had been fought. Kate looked around in excitement. But there was no one to be seen. All the happiness for rescuing her sister and the rest, for winning this battle vanished immediately. Just like Shadow had done. . .

### Chapter 48: Shadow lost… again!

Kate was desperate! She’d been looking for Shadow for hours; she had searched the whole city; she had looked everywhere. And yet she had found nothing. She returned to the place her power was telling her he was for the umpteenth time. The past few hours Shadow didn’t seem to have moved at all, according to it.

“Where are you, Shadow?!” bellowed Kate being in the verge of crying “Am I going to have to look for you everyday now?!”

“Looking for someone, too?” a deep voice sounded behind her.

Kate turned around and saw the man with the spear that had fought here earlier. He had a worried look like Kate’s which indicated he hadn’t joined the celebrations either.

“I am supposed to have this ability with which I can locate everyone and everything –almost! But it now shows he’s over there on that wall, but he’s nowhere to be seen!” Kate cried.

“That man you’re looking for, what did he look like?” asked the man.

Kate described Shadow and even told him he was her husband. The man looked at her for a moment with that mixture of calm and worried on his face.

“I saw that Strange Odd Shadow you’re speaking of! We were fighting the Trolls here! One Troll tried to smash him, but another minifigure saved him. After that Shadow, whose helm had been removed when he fell, –that’s how I recognised him– seemed to break down or something. One Troll grabbed him and threw him on that wall! He didn’t bounce off of it nor were there any smashed bricks of him! He just seemed to vanish!”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Strange Odd Shadow felt more bizarrely than ever. He had been out for hours, but now he had woken up and was experiencing the bizarreness of his experience. First of all, he felt flat. Literally, he felt like he had lost his third dimension! Secondly, he couldn’t move an inch of his body. He was completely immobile. Finally, he seemed to be in darkness. Shadow had no idea what was happening. And that was scaring him!

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

“Sorry! I have been awfully rude to you!” Kate said to the man whose name was Namandel “I’ve told you all about my problem, but as I understand you have one, too! Tell me what happened! I may be able to help you!”

“Okay!” Namandel agreed “I have this little brother! He was with me when the Trolls came, but I sent him away, because it would be too dangerous for him. I saw him get on a rocket with some other people I didn’t know. I haven’t seen him ever since. I asked about the wounded and the smashed ones and they said they found no one yet with the description of his. I found one of the minifigures that had left with him. They didn’t know where he had gone either! I can’t seem to find him anywhere!”

“Perhaps, I could try to locate him… with that power I told you about!” Kate said.

She focused and used her power. Her eyes glowed and Namandel noticed that. He hadn’t been sure whether that part of the story was true, but now it was apparent this girl probably had something special.

“That’s impossible! It’s never happened to me before!” Kate exclaimed when her eyes became normal again “I can’t find him anywhere! Even if he was smashed, I’d locate his pieces! It’s like his nowhere!”

The girl had so surprised a look that Namandel now didn’t even doubt a tad she was telling the truth. But what could this mean? Could his brother have just vanished from the face of Crux? Neither of them had the answer.

Yet, something soon got their attention away from that. As the sun was rising a cough was heard from the side of the wall. They both looked immediately. There was a figure next to the wall lying on the ground. Kate ran to the minifigure with excitement growing inside her. It was Strange Odd Shadow in flesh and bricks. He didn’t look well though. He seemed to be pale, exhausted and depressed.

“Shadow!!! You’re okay! I was so worried about you! What happened? Where have you been?” squeaked Kate almost too fast for Shadow to understand what she was saying.

“Kate… take me to the Tower… please!” he replied flatly.

“But what happened, Shadow?!”

“I don’t know, Kate! But can you just take me to Nexus Tower!”

“Shadow…”

“I need to… go there! To the shard!”

“Okay! Well, goodbye Namandel! Thanks for the help! I’d like to stay and help you, but you see I have to take care of Shadow! Good luck in your search!” Kate said.

She then took Shadow, put him in her rocket and took off for the Tower. This adventure was over for them. . .

### Chapter 49: Aftermath

Strange Odd Shadow and Kate Pirate were standing in front of the Beam of the Imagination Shard in Nexus Tower. Shadow had his arm stretched towards it as if he was some homeless person warming his hands up in a fire inside some bean. Kate was just looking at his expression of relief after pain.

“Have you ever felt this thing, Kate, which is like you are mentally tired?” Shadow started talking “When for instance you study some subject for too long and then you feel your brain has gotten tired? Well, right now I’m feeling something like this, but concerning my soul! All that I experienced yesterday was too much for me. I actually collapsed in the end. But Imagination has this soothing, calming effect! I feel better already! It’s because Nexus is the source of all good in this world! And it represents all good in this world! Standing near it, it makes you feel it! It heals wounds that are not physical! That’s why I asked you to bring me here instantly! When I appeared I couldn’t even stand being awake for long! Now, I’m better! I will heal… as time goes by”

Kate realised that as he was saying all that Shadow had started crying. He did not try to stop the tears. They stemmed from that inner darkness of the sadness this battle had caused him. Shadow knew that. And he knew it was better to get as much of it as he could out of him.

“So, do you know where Magical, Sarah, the others are? Or how they are?” Shadow asked.

“Magical’s very hurt, but he’s okay! Sarah doesn’t have serious wounds! As for the others, they are too many for me to know, but I think Platinum is okay, Lemon has a deep injury on the leg and Turt is in a state where he stays awake for very little! But I’d like to talk to you about something else first!” Kate replied.

She started narrating the story of her visiting Maelstrom Lair. Shadow’s eyes flashed light blue when he heard the description of the black-ragged man, but then he changed back to sad calmness and his eyes were hazel again. His eyes were hazel much more often and much longer than they used to.

“I would like you to meet my sister!” Kate said after finishing her narration.

“Okay!” Shadow answered “Are we going to her or is she coming to us?”

“I don’t think she’s in a state for being dragged around the Tower!” Kate told him.

“Hmm! That’s right! Her psychological state must be really delicate! She was only a child when she was abducted! She’s still a child! So many years of torture would have broken anyone! I hope she still can have a chance of something more normal; that her scars will be able to heal enough! Let’s go!”

None of them talked much while they walked towards the Tower’s Hospital. Kate was scared! It was so shocking to see Shadow without his enthusiasm. Normally, he had an interest for everything. Now, he was so passive. And that was as if half his personality had been stolen from him. Kate could only hope he would recover.

They reached the level of the Hospital and headed for the Mental and Psychic Health Wing. Finally, led by a nurse, they entered the room where Kate’s sister had been put together with some of the other escapees of the Maelstrom Lair. Kate saw Sky Lane talking to that man with the infected feet. One young girl that looked a lot like Kate was sitting on her bed with her knees on her chest and her arms around them looking around in a panicked paranoid way. She looked a lot better now having bathed and changed into hospital clothes. However, she had done those only with the help of Katie, who she had recognised despite all the years of being apart. She hadn’t let anyone else touch her, yet. Not even the doctors who wanted to treat her injuries.

“Hello Annie!” Kate said approaching the girl “How are you? Are you feeling well?”

The girl seeing Kate seemed to become less frightened, but she was still afraid. She watched Kate sit on her bed and then suddenly hugged her. Kate hugged her back. When they had first arrived in Nexus Tower, they had hugged then again. It seemed Annie really wanted to hug Kate… or perhaps anyone.

“Anne! I would like you to meet a good friend of mine! His name is Strange Odd Shadow! But we call him Shadow! Here he is! He likes to build stuff! And he’s very smart!”

Shadow smiled to the girl as she looked at him, but it didn’t really match his feelings. He just wanted to make Anne feel better. The girl mumbled something Shadow didn’t understand and then looked at her hands. She was intertwining her fingers, then de-intertwining them and intertwining them again.

“I think Annie is speaking some kind of a Stromling language, if there is such a thing! She hasn’t spoken a word which is understandable since we’ve come here! That is of course with the exception of my name!” Kate explained.

“Hmm! I suppose it is possible that some of the smarter Darklings have their own language to communicate! We should ask the Paradox about this!” Shadow said his eyes flashing again “But I understand that after all these years she might not have had anyone to talk to and her speaking of our language got… rusty! We can only hope her speaking skills will slowly return if we continue talking to her!”

Anne was curious to see Shadow’s eyes becoming light blue. She looked at him and a new emotion seemed to spread on her face: interest.

“Light!” she whispered to herself.

“That’s right!” Kate laughed “Shadow’s eyes do glow! It seems that the process has already begun, Shadow!”

“Kate, I think I should go see our friends now! See how they are!” Shadow said then.

“Okay!” Katie replied and turned to Annie “Anne, I’m sorry, but we’ll have to leave now! We’ll return soon though!”

Anne became sad now. But she didn’t argue –for speech is not the only way to put your message across. She hugged Kate again.

Soon, Shadow and Kate had arrived at the Wing where they kept the injured minifigures. Kate asked where Magical Fire Dragon was and in no time they were standing over his bed.

“It was about time!” Sarah’s angry voice sounded in their ears “I’ve been waiting here for you two to appear! Do you think I’d just stay here for him?”

“Hello Sarah!” Shadow greeted her sadly.

“What happened to him?” Sarah asked surprised to see him that way.

“The whole battle! It got him down!” Kate answered for him.

Magical opened his eyes. He weakly looked around to see what had woken him up. He barely moved his head, but managed to see all of them.

“Hello, Shadow! I’m glad you made it! They said your mission went well!” Magical said weakly and then fell back to sleep again.

“He’s doing that all the time! Waking up, saying something then falling back to sleep again! Why does he even bother to wake up?! The Maelstrom would have done me a favour if it had smashed him in this battle!” Sarah started saying angrily.

Shadow was not really listening! He was looking around to see if there was anyone else he knew in the room. It was a big one and held about twenty people. He suddenly spotted a familiar figure lying on a bed nearby.

“Quantum!” he exclaimed and in no time he had covered all of the distance till his bed “Thank brick, you’re okay! I thought you smashed!”

“Shadow! Hello! What happened? I can’t remember anything about the past few days and no one is telling me! Sure, you can tell me!” Quantum replied.

He seemed to have been much wounded in his fall. The most concerning were the bandages wrapped around his head.

“What?! You mean you don’t remember anything?!” Shadow enquired.

“And he’s not going to!” said a familiar voice from behind.

Shadow turned around to see Panagis smiling cruelly before him. Two nurses were with him; they lost no time and grabbed Quantum’s bed and started rolling it away. The Assembly recruit felt his blood going faster in his veins.

“Panagis! What are you doing here?” Shadow asked angrily.

“I am moving your friend Quantum, of course! You see, we’ve prepared a special room for people like him!”

“What do you mean people like him?!”

“You see, Strange Odd Shadow, hits on the head and post-traumatic shock have caused many cases of memory loss. I’ve decided that these people, for their own protection, should not be told of Castle Kingdom! That’s why I’m gathering them! And no one can tell them! Not even you, Strange Odd Shadow, because as you surely remember have vowed not to do so if so we decide! See you later!”

Shadow was furious not only for the injustice to these people, but also because Panagis seemed to be enjoying this. His eyes flashed again and an idea grew in his head.

“You think, Panagis? We shall see!” Shadow talked to himself and a mischievous smile formed on his face.

Shadow and Kate, now escorted by Sarah visited other friends of theirs after that. In one of the rooms they went to, Shadow was not surprised to see the leaders. The Duke and Vanda had already recovered enough to be standing. Yet, Overbuild still couldn’t walk and was lying on a bed, having left his gear for the first time in a long time, as far as many people were concerned. With his helm off, Overbuild’s wavy orange hair, that reminded you of the Assembly colours, were seen by everyone. He was actually handsome enough. Yet, Hael wasn’t even conscious. He was one of the most wounded minifigures of the battle.

“Hello, Doc! How are you?” Shadow said approaching Overbuild.

“Well, considering I’m probably not moving my legs again, I’m feeling well enough!” Overbuild said bitterly.

“How come you don’t take off your helm more often? I thought that you must be hiding some terrible hair, a bald head or something, but you actually have fine hair!” Shadow said wanting to change the subject and please his curiosity.

Kate was happy to see him being curious again. It seemed he was better now.

“Well, before I came to Crux, there was a… eee… a girl! Weeeell, she liked my hair very much! But now seeing it reminds me of her!” Overbuild explained awkwardly.

“Really? Well, that is interesting!” Shadow said “Well, goodbye, Doc!”

“Overbuild had a girlfriend!!!” Kate said to Shadow and Sarah when they had gotten a bit far.

While the three friends talked to Lemon, another minifigure walked in. She approached Overbuild and discussed something with him. After a little, she left again.

“Eeer, Shadow!” Overbuild called from his bed “Come here! I’ve got something to tell you!”

Shadow, surprised, returned to his Faction Leader.

“I just got some news! Some bad news! You see, your mother… she was in the battle, too! But… she didn’t make it! I was just told… she was smashed! I am so sorry!” Albert informed him.

Shadow’s mouth opened as the truth sunk in. Shadow had saved his mother six months ago. It was like she had returned from the smashed! But now, it seemed that all was at vain! For his mother had smashed anyway! And now there was probably no way of saving her! No Maelstrom would preserve her pieces! Shadow felt like he wanted to start yelling. Instead of that he started crying. For a second, he thought he was a volcano about to erupt, but it seemed that after all he was a black cloud and it had just started to rain!

“Shadow, listen! Because there’s more! Rusty Steele, your father, was mortally wounded. We can’t save him! He is not expected to live much longer! I thought you would like to know, despite your current relationship”

Now, Shadow felt like he was being kicked while he was already fallen. He was supposed to be mad at his father for smashing his mother when she had been infected. However, now that he heard he wouldn’t live much longer, he remembered that he was indeed his father. All their good times together returned to his mind. He realised that there was no chance that they would ever be able to make up and relive these moments.

Yet, despite all that, he suddenly felt very calm. He knew exactly what he should do. He had stopped crying now. He got out of the room, found a projection of Nexus Naomi and asked her where Rusty Steele was. The others didn’t follow. They knew Shadow wanted to be alone now.

As Shadow walked towards Rusty Steele’s ward, he thought of the last six months. When Shadow had rebuilt and disinfected Jane Phonus, she had reunited with her husband. Shadow had gone mad at her for forgiving his father. That, combined with the fact that Shadow hadn’t seen his mother for four years, his relationship wasn’t exactly had Shadow had hoped it would be when he imagined saving his mother. Now, he regretted it all. He had lived all this time being mad at his parents not realising his parents wouldn’t be there forever. Shadow wished he had made up with his father a long time ago!

Shadow entered his father’s ward. It was a smaller one. There weren’t many people other than Rusty Steele. The boy seeing his father ran to him and with his knees on the floor brought his head at the level of Rusty. The man looked at his son, turning his head slowly. His eyes were full of sorrow.

“I am sorry, dad! I am sorry! I shouldn’t have stayed mad at you for so long! I should have forgiven you! I should have forgotten what happened in the past, especially now that mom had returned. But I was foolish! I am sorry that I understand this only now in the end!” Shadow said almost with only one breath.

“You’re not the one who should be sorry, my boy! I should have tried more! I shouldn’t have fled! The only way for you to forgive me would be if I showed you I regretted my actions and that I was sorry! But I was too proud! I chose the easy way! I should have tried more, son! Or even better, I should have listened to you! But it doesn’t matter now! We made up! This is what matters! I am glad we did this before… the end! We can say goodbye to each other! And thank you… for bringing back your mother! I am so glad this moment!” Rusty Steele talked with difficulty and it took him time to say all that.

“Goodbye, dad!” Shadow said with a tremulous voice.

Rusty Steele smiled to his son. It was so long that he hadn’t managed to do this. He closed his eyes and never opened them again. . .

### Chapter 50: Epilogue

Strange Odd Shadow was in the place the Nexus Meeting had occurred; as many other minifigures. Doctor Overbuild was making a speech. The Nexus-Forcers had gathered to hear it. Many people crying and sobbing could be heard.

“…We understand that many of you have sustained losses! Losses that you will not easily recover from! However, we ask you to understand that this was for our common cause, a greater future! We ask you not to forget why these people sacrificed their lives!” Overbuild was saying.

Shadow wasn’t listening much. He was absorbed to his own thoughts, listening only to some parts of the speech. He was sitting between Kate and Sarah having placed his head on the former’s shoulder. Other friends of his that were well enough to be here were sitting around him.

Overbuild was now reading the names of all the fallen in order to honour them. Shadow did not listen to most names either, but he heard a name here and there: “…Robert Madison… Hugh Leggins… Rather Tired Wheel… Nirwell Jane Lane… Fiery Warm Girl… Sir Formosus Bellios…”

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

After the speech, Shadow together with some of his friends went to one of the rooms through which the Nexus passed. They sat on some chairs there, but did not talk much. They were mourning. Shadow watched the Shard’s think Nexus. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

“I knew the Nexus can cause you some slight fake sensations, but I didn’t know it was capable of creating whole illusions” Shadow suddenly said.

“What are you talking about?” Kate asked.

Shadow pointed to something. Sure enough, a minifigure was walking towards them. It was Dracula.

“Aren’t these things supposed to be personal? Only you can feel them, in this case, see them!” said Sarah.

“I thought so, but I don’t know about this one!” Shadow answered.

“Why can’t he be real?” Platinum, who didn’t know, asked.

“He was the one that exploded the Vortex!” Shadow replied.

“Oh!”

At that time, Dracula reached them. There was a smile on his face.

“I am alive!!!” he announced “I survived it!”

“But how?!” Shadow enquired.

“Well, I am a Vampire and though vampires aren’t really immortal, we are a lot harder to smash!” he explained.

“Then, why didn’t you tell us that?!!!” Shadow bellowed, but he was actually happy.

“Well, I wasn’t sure myself whether even vampires can survive that!” Dracula responded.

There was a general wild enthusiasm as all the gathered friends cheered and celebrated this good news.

*Perhaps, things are not so bad!* Shadow thought. *Some of them seem to be alive after all! Not all of them smashed! I actually still have many friends!*

“Shadow, would you like to have a walk and talk a little!” Overbuild’s voice was heard behind him.

While everyone cheered, no one had noticed Dr. Overbuild approaching them with his wheelchair. Shadow excused himself to the others and started walking next to Overbuild.

“So, how are the legs?” Shadow asked.

“Well, the doctors say that there is still some hope that one day I may recover! You see, my legs are not completely paralytic. They’re just too weak to allow me to stand and walk! That means they may get better!” Albert replied.

He opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted. Panagis came furiously into the room and quickly approached them.

“It is outrageous!!! That man has clearly disobeyed my orders!!!” Panagis shouted pointing to Shadow “I don’t know how he overcame his vow, but he told every one of the people who had forgotten about Castle Kingdom! I demand he should be punished!”

“Wait a sec, my friend Panagis! Did you actually see Strange Odd Shadow do that?” Overbuild asked.

“No, I just learnt! But I know it is him! There’s no way it’s someone else! It is him that does these things!” Panagis roared.

“So, you are accusing Mr. Shadow with no proof! I am sorry, my friend, but I cannot punish him without really knowing whether he did it!”

“So, you’re taking his side!”

“No, Panagis! I’m taking justice’s side!”

Panagis seemed to be about to explode. Instead he just turned around sharply and left.

“Now, tell me, Shadow! Hypothetically speaking, if you had done it,” Overbuild spoke when Panagis was out of the room with a mischievous smile on his face “how would you have overcome the oath?”

“Well, hypothetically speaking, Mardolf the Orange once told me that for such vows to work both the magician and the vowing person have to want this. Hypothetically, there could be a case where neither Mardolf nor I wanted this!” Shadow explained with the same smile.

“Really?! Then hypothetically, very clever! On another note, it was you that disinfected the Vortex, weren’t you, Shadow?”

“Who else?” Shadow replied “Though I didn’t really implement it! My friend didn’t let me! But it was all for naught! The Maelstrom got its hands on the Shard and now instead of our having double power, they can bring back their old power! And it is all my fault! I found the Shard in Deadly Desert, but it fell from my backpack, so the Maelstrom took it!”

“It was not all for naught, Shadow! Firstly, with that you helped us win the battle! Secondly, with no Vortex space travel will be much safer now. We can even start rebuilding Crux. Thirdly, for now we still have the advantage. The Shard will take time to bring back the power the Vortex gave them! But I also wanted to talk to you about the Darkitect! It seems he has returned!”

“Yes, he has a new power now! But it seems to me that he destroys the bodies that he takes over! Perhaps, he’ll constantly have to change that keeping him weak! Unless he finds a perfect host for himself, I don’t think we should worry much about that. I am more concerned by the fact that he had a staff. Since I destroyed his staff where did he get that one?”

“Oh, I know where he got it from! You see, I recognised it! It was the scepter of Exavier… erm I mean Typhonus! Only its jewel seems to have changed. It used to be light blue, but now it’s purple! I don’t know what that means, though!”

“Do you think he’ll come after me again?”

“Oh, I think that he certainly will! If not himself, he’ll send someone else!” Overbuild said looking at the scene of three women hugging a teenage girl; Shadow recognised Sky Lane.

“Well… then I should embrace myself for some new adventures!” Shadow said wondering what would come next. . .

THE END