The MAGAX Chronicles: Part One

The Awakening

"What have you done?" Magax said, rising up into the air.

"An army of shades, spectres, and shadows to serve me!" Nox shouted, rising up above the dark cloud cover. "And their first act... will be to destroy you, my old servant.”

Magax whirled around as Nox faded out of sight. More than fifty ghosts were coming straight for him, and he had no idea what to do about it. Even in the face of death, however, Magax’s mind thought clearly. It was something he had learned to do as an assassin for Nox.

He whipped out his battleaxe, slashing at the ghosts as they swarmed around him, making horrible rattling noises as they came, as if they were trying to draw breath but couldn’t quite manage it. The battleaxe cut through the ghosts as if they weren’t even there… which, technically, they weren’t. He quickly stuck his ax back into his belt and rose higher into the sky. This wasn’t working.

Suddenly, from behind him, he heard what sounded like a belching noise. He turned to see a huge slime ball coming straight for him, hurled by a large Chia. He gasped and tried to duck, but the ball hit him straight on, giving him what felt like an electric shock. He rose higher.

Think, think, he told himself. There has to be a way to destroy these things. If there’s one thing I learned under Nox, it was that anything can be killed. He looked up to see a sad-looking JubJub coming towards him. Of course, he thought, these things are already dead… He looked towards the ground. The ghosts were slow, but they were coming, and he had no where to go.

A sizzling sound was heard, and he turned around to see two ghosts explode as they hit each other. A burst of inspiration hit Magax. The ghosts couldn’t touch each other! Which meant they couldn’t touch energy, which was, of course, what they were made of. And Magax had something that was pure energy in itself.

He closed his eyes and summoned forth his Darklight Axe. He sent a beam of electric light towards the JubJub, which seemed to be doing nothing but sitting there watching him. He watched in horror as the JubJub split into three separate creatures. Had this been a mistake? He was reminded of the Hydra, a giant snake with multiple heads that would grow two more each time you cut one off.

He sent another beam of light hurtling towards one of the small JubJubs, and watched in satisfaction as it exploded. Good, he thought, so they can be destroyed. It’s just a little tricky…

“Ah, so you figured out how to destroy my minions, my old friend!” came an oh-so-familiar voice from above.

“NOX!” bellowed Magax, looking up towards the floating Chia, who had conveniently placed himself out of Magax’s reach. “You let these poor souls go back to rest.” As he spoke, Magax pondered on the reappearance of his old master. Usually, Hubrid liked to create something and let it destroy his enemies itself while he went back home. But, then again, Magax was a special case…

“Let them go back to rest?” Nox laughed a high, cruel laugh. “My dear, naïve Magax, don’t you know it was their choice? That they’d rather be here, trying to destroy you, instead of where they came from?” Magax gasped angrily and grabbed for his stone battleaxe, hurling it towards the evil Chia. Nox yelped and disappeared with a pop, but not before he sent a flaming ball onto Magax, who fought it off easily. His old master might have been good at creating things to do his dirty work for him, but when it came to actually defending himself, his spells were fairly weak.

Magax traveled through the air, sending his Darklight beam at anything that moved. He noticed that some of the ghosts seemed to actually be trying to hurt him, yet others just stared at him sadly as he raised his axe to send them back to where they came from. Still, with no way to tell where they were without practically running into them, he was losing. For a second he wished there was a way to tell where exactly they were, but he then shook himself: wishing never got anyone anywhere.

A scream interrupted his meditating. He flew as fast as he could to where the sound was coming from: near the cemetery gates. Which were now hanging open… and, running away from the scene, were two children: a Chomby and a Kacheek. They had obviously come there as a prank and had been scared off by the ghosts, which were hovering nearby. But something was definitely not right: the ghosts seemed to be… no, it can’t be, thought Magax. But they were. They were going through the gate. There were no high walls around the cemetery, the ghosts could have easily floated over, but they had obviously been kept inside by Nox’s magic. Yet, by leaving the gates open, the two children had practically invited them out into the world.

Magax whirled around to see all the other ghosts coming towards him. No, not towards him, towards the gate. “NO!” shouted Magax. But it was too late. The ghosts were leaving.

As Magax rushed after the ghosts, one thought encompassed his mind: the faeries. They knew the graveyard was his area. They would think he had done this. They would never forgive him now.

Magax shook himself. Stop it, he thought to himself. The important thing is that no one gets hurt, not that you’ll get blamed for this. Feeling angry at himself, he decided he needed a plan. There was no way he could single-pawedly take on all those ghosts. He needed help, but he didn’t know where to get it. Then another thought hit him: the faeries. This time, he wasn’t thinking of them for selfish reasons. He would ask them for help. He knew they had no reason to help him, but he had to try. He had never come to them before, not even to ask for forgiveness. He wanted to show them he was changed before he did something like that.

He knew they had noticed him trying. At least they wouldn’t try to kill him as they would have years ago. But they did have the option of turning him away. One step at a time, Magax told himself. Get to the faeries first, then worry about that. As Magax turned to follow the ghosts, he saw the two children huddling under a tree, scared out of their minds. Magax flew towards them, and they whimpered and huddled closer together.

“Please, sir,” sobbed the Kacheek, “don’t hurt us!”

“Yeah, we didn’t mean to,” sniffed the Chomby, “We just wanted to see our dad one last time…” his eyes filled with tears. Magax sighed. He had wanted to be angry with them.

“Where do you live?” he asked gently. They pointed towards a village beyond the graveyard. Magax nodded and picked them up, dropping them off at their home. They thanked him through their tears and waved goodbye. That night, the Chomby and Kacheek tried to tell their mom about the nice Wocky who had saved them from the ghosts, but she had gasped out something that sounded like “Magax!” and locked all the doors and windows.

Magax tried to follow the ghosts. They seemed much faster now that they were out of that cemetery. Perhaps it was because they now had a motivation, they were free to go anywhere they wanted now. He ended up having to follow their destruction. He passed neohomes that had been built in the Haunted Woods. Many of them had broken windows and doors, and all were dark. He imagined the families inside, huddling in fear. But the ghosts were nowhere to be found. But he knew where they were.

Magax flew higher and looked grimly into the distance, at a place where lights twinkled and you could almost hear the laughter. Neopia. Magax hadn’t been to Neopia in over a hundred years; he was not wanted there. He didn’t blame them. Magax tried not to think about all that he had done to the Neopians, but it was impossible… He would never forget it, and neither would they. He wanted more than anything to make it up to them, but that would be nearly impossible.

Magax flew sadly and silently over the trees of the Haunted Woods. As long as he didn’t sleep much, he would make record time. As he went, he saw a few straggling ghosts flitting between the trees. He tried to destroy them, but they always seemed to dodge out of the way.

In the distance, an owl hooted and leaves rustled spookily. An Aisha ghost sped by him, giving out a fast, guttural hacking noise that he assumed was supposed to be laughter. Magax sighed. It had been another normal day in his very long life.

To be continued...