Contradictions

Xavier and Delfin were at the entrance of the cave. Xavier still held the cristal in his hands, but he stopped moving.

'Is something wrong?' asked Delfin.

'Delfin? I can't see anything.'

'I'm not surprised; your eyes are burning.'

'Delfin, listen, the one you were talking to a few minutes ago, it wasn't me... It's something, the All Father, the chaos, Clinton; it's all at once; Clinton was wrong; he made a mistake; what he did can't be controlled; this is going to destroy everything.'

Delfin held his dagger.

'I know what you're thinking, but don't do it. Clinton, the All Father, and this thing are in my head. Do you remember the diagram? I have an idea; I'm seeing things that happened recently. The salamanders... only Uruk is alive. The All Father and chaos are merged into something monstrous, but at the same time they are in conflict. Clinton is not entirely compatible with them and retains part of his independence. When the time comes, we will use that last diagram. Pray that everything goes well.'

Xavier stopped speaking and became static. Inside his head, in a dark place reminiscent of the jungle of Morr but full of miasma, he was engaged in a conversation between four different but connected entities, in which he was both a participant and a spectator, with confused ideas of what was going on. All the entities present attempted to gain dominance over each other without success.

'Way to go! Xavier de Vonder. Of all possibilities, you've made it this far.'

Clinton's presented himself as a young man, as he was when Xavier met him at the guard tower during the magic affinity identification ceremony many years ago. The All Father metaphorically twisted and showed Xavier an image, urging him to speak.

'Present yourself as you really are. You don't belong to the living anymore.'

Clinton turned into an undead man in front of his eyes.

'You don't look too well. You are breaking apart'

'The consequences of not being entirely compatible, a demerit of not being a dual magician,' Clinton complained.

'Do you have any idea what you've done?'

'Bah! Don't lecture me, Xavier. Especially you; we know that you are no saint.

"Idiot, that's not me," Xavier thought. The words were his; they came out of his mouth; he had thought of them, but it was not he who made the decision to speak.

'The Miasma, the chaos, will control you and contaminate everything.'

'So what?' asked Clinton. 'What's wrong with that, All Father?' Clinton would have smiled, but he had no lips.

'We are semi-united; I know a lot about you; I know where you come from; I am aware that you were once part of the world of chaos; the appearance of magic in the human world was caused by your interference; you broke the balance. I know how you contaminated the original dragons; they looked like wild reptiles to you, and you tried to turn them into something else for your own sake. At the end of the Dragon War, you let them die just to create those things, those salamanders. Humans seemed interesting to you, although, just like dragons, they were just the next step in your experiment. It's a pity that arcane magic was too much for you. You underestimated us too much.' Clinton started laughing like a maniac. 'Now look at you, a fragment of a false god, fighting with chaos for a piece of a man's mind. How low you've fallen.'

'You're a fool!' yelled the All Father.

Clinton stared firmly at Xavier. The flames in his eyes went out, and they became human again.

'What happened?' asked Xavier.

'Nothing; I just forced that God wannabe to step back.' Clinton's voice sounded euphoric; there was miasma coming out of his eyes, giving Xavier a creepy feeling. "That's not just Clinton; it's pure miasma."

A lot of information entered Xavier's mind, and the All Father twisted inside him, but he was still suppressed by Clinton and the chaos.

'What is this?' asked Xavier.

'You know very well what it is; I have just told you. We're connected, and you're more compatible with everything than I am. I'm sorry, but your shadow magic will merge with the All Father, giving him stability and better control over the chaos. I'll take advantage of his affinity for fire and ride right behind him. Be a good boy and let things happen.'

'Pft! I'm not interested in helping you.'

Clinton laughed. 'No one cares what you want; the All Father will do it for you.' Clinton approached Xavier. 'You know, we're not so different; I can feel all the things you've done to survive; it makes sense; after all, we are family.'

'What are you talking about?' asked Xavier, confused.

'Liev, he was a degenerate, a sexual predator, a genocidal killer, the best of the species. Despite the low reproduction rate of the magicians, he had many descendants. You, me, even that excuse of a man, Delfin. Surprised? Me too; I suppose we're like cousins or something. It is perfect for me; it makes us a lot more compatible.

'Impossible!' replied Xavier to the news.

'You know it's true; you can feel it, don't you? The All Father is connected to both, and our blood connects us; you know we have the same origin. Anyway, in the end, I'll take over your body; being dead isn't much fun.' Clinton laughed. 'The All Father will try to fight back and free himself; he will even use what he has just learned and the little you know about arcane magic to oppose me. But he will fail and end up giving me your body anyway.'

To say that Xavier was scared was an understatement; the problem was not Clinton's words; it was the fact that those words didn't seem to come entirely from him. The desire to take total control over his body seemed to come from the All Father and the miasma at the same time. "Clinton is losing himself and diluting among these monsters."

While this was happening, on the battlefield, a disorganized battle was raging. Without Clinton's control, miasma began to spread uncontrollably. Zombies and resurrected dragons attacked all living creatures; only the golem remained inactive, protecting Clinton.

'What is going on?' asked Lydia, baffled by the situation.

'Clinton has betrayed us. He is attacking the troops of the other kingdoms and the dynasty at the same time. Many magicians and soldiers have deserted, running for their lives. We've lost Master Emeral and the De Vonders; we only have Master Gaelion and Amelia left. Telman has disappeared. Master Pelana is the last of the titled magicians, but she is still exhausted. This is a disaster,' replied one of the warlocks of the court.

'Send the warlocks, all of them,' said Lydia.

'We only have twenty warlocks left in the court. The rest and the recruited warlocks have fled the battlefield, Excellency.'

These news made Lydia's face pale; with every second that passed, she saw the miasma advance over the battlefield at a frenetic pace.

'Activate the sacrificial function of the knights,' ordered Lydia.

'Excellency, we will lose our knights; we cannot...'

'Do as you are commanded! Activate the armor sacrifice function. Let the court warlocks use the lives of the knights to attack Clinton, destroy that golem, and kill that bastard once for all.'

Following these orders, the knights of the dynasty wearing enchanted armor began to die in masse. The warlocks of the court threw themselves against the miasma and against the golem. The frequent use of arcan magic and the magnitude and power of the spells now used caused the magicians to lose control of themselves and fall into a frenzy. Fire tornadoes, explosions, large rocks colliding between them, frozen areas, ice lances—all moved and shaken by hurricane winds—and lightning bolts falling from the sky. Attacks worthy of titled magicians transformed the landscape of the battlefield in minutes.

The dragon on which Uruk flew was caught by the winds and fell to the ground. His body covered Uruk from most of the attacks, although he still suffered several injuries. At last, the vitality of the warlocks was exhausted, and they fell to the ground dead.

Zombies, dragons, ents, skeletons—the army of monsters that lived inside the miasma had been reduced to nothing. The miasma itself had lost almost all its progress. Clinton's golem suffered great damage and was reduced to a bunch of debris.

'Damn it!' Clinton disappeared from Xavier's mind.

Xavier's body moved again.

'What happened? Xavier! What is wrong?' asked Delfin.

'Nothing; let's go. We have things to do; we have to stop Clinton.'

"This is not Xavier," thought Delfin as he followed the game of the stranger who usurped his body.

Xavier's body began drawing diagrams and runes at the entrance to the cave. Just a glance from those glowing eyes was enough to make the two zombie dragons stay still.

'Now we only need a sacrifice.'

Delfin was disturbed by these words and made clear his opposition to fulfilling that role by firmly holding the handle of his dagger.

'Don't be ridiculous, Delfin. A life with greater vitality than yours is needed, though it should be of a thinking being; in this case, a lesser dragon should be enough.'

After the words spoken by the usurper of Xavier's body, the dragon in which they had traveled to this place returned and bowed in front of Xavier's body.

"So you are the All Father," thought Delfin as he saw him lay his hand on the dragon.

Without words, without enchantments, the dragon's life was extinguished; from the crystal that the All Father held, all the magical energies of all the elements traveled into Xavier's body. He began to burn; frost formed around his hands for a second; then they lit up in flames; the earth at his feet moved; and wind currents blew.

'It's not bad. Now I will take care of that little slug,' said the All Father, climbing on the chair on the back of the dead dragon. The dragon, now gray and dry, without luster in his scales, and invaded by the miasma, began to move.

When the All Father tried to use the reins, something stopped him. 'Come up, we don't have all day,' he ordered Delfin with a frowning face.

Delfin climbed on top of the new zombie dragon, riding behind the All Father. The dragon flew toward the battlefield, and the other two zombie dragons who guarded the entrance of the cave followed him. The All Father, who was possessing Xavier's body, handled the chains that worked as reins with his right hand while holding the cristal with Clinton's heart in his left hand. The crystal only had miasma covering it now; there were no traces of the other elements.