Maxx walks with purpose, turning corners, dashing down long stone corridors, turning left, then left again, then right. The group following him keeps close on his heels, Pultine flying, Shini and Zacchaeus walking briskly. Pultine illuminates most of the maze they navigate through, but Maxx carries a torch. Not that he needs it, he is moved by the pull of the Blight Maker that he would feel even if he had no eyes. He can feel himself getting closer to the destiny he was promised when he struck out into the Fonlands on his own.
“You are lost,” an old female voice said and Maxx heard it even over his grunts and groans of frustration as he made his way through heavy vegetation of the disc of Agê.
“Who said that?” Maxx asked aloud. He continued to walk, but the mysterious voice made him power up the Superconsciousness and he was surrounded in the yellow glow.
“The only being of the Fonlands who knows what you seek and agrees that Owuo should pay for the evil he has spread.”
Maxx stopped. He couldn’t see more than a foot in front of him in the dense jungle of Agê’s Disc, and he didn’t know where he was or where he was going. He just had to get away from the mmoatia and all the hypocrites who claimed to care about Bludon but were now working with the monster that halved the Bludonian population with no remorse.
“You seek the power to end evil,” the voice continued, “and I know where you can find it. But know that I am only willing to help because I require your help in return.”
“How do I know you are speaking truthfully?” Maxx asked.
“I will lead you to great power that will allow you to find what you seek. There is a way to kill Owuo, the weapon is real, but you will have to travel to a forbidden realm to find it. There is something in the swamp that can help you achieve this and it will grant you immense new powers. I will show you how to obtain it and you will know the power that I am promising you.”
“You could be leading me to death,” Maxx said.
“You have already found death, Superguardian,” the voice said. “You must embrace it if you ever hope to accomplish your goal. I will bathe you in death magic and then you will understand.”
Maxx was skeptical and he looked around himself frantically, suddenly worried that the voice would reveal its body and ambush him. A violet mist began to accumulate around him, seeping through the big leaves, vines and branches.
“Don’t struggle,” was the last thing he heard.
When he opened his eyes, everything was dark around him and he was lying on a floor of dirt. He knew he was no longer in the wilds of the jungle, but he recognized the smell of the dirt that had been background to the smell of vibrant foliage, so he knew he was still on the disc of Agê. When he powered up the Superconsciousness, he saw that he was in a room that had been dug into dirt. The room was empty but there was an old woman on her knees facing a dirt wall. Her hands were high above her head and waves of violet energy wafted up from her fingertips to the dirt roof of the crude room and the energy collected there rained down over Maxx. It seemed to be a violet liquid that rained over him but it wasn’t wet and when it made contact with his skin and his shell, the droplets of violet energy were absorbed into his body. He could feel the strange power suffusing his being and it felt like a bright warmth impacting his body and then moving through it. The rain of power was heavy and the bright warmth washed through him and he felt something akin to the feeling that the lean made him feel, but it didn’t warp his view of reality. He felt this new power suffusing him even as it washed through him and he stood in the torrential downpour for a long time with his face up and his arms outstretched. Maxx didn’t notice when the washing stopped, he was lost in his mind, lost in the visions that the washing induced that showed him the dark ritual he was to enact to obtain the weapon he desired.
“I hope that you were paying attention,” the old woman said. She was standing but still looked at the wall facing away from Maxx. “You have seen the way. If you want it, you must be thoroughly washed, and you need the Growth Amulet.”
“Is that what this was?” Maxx asked, still looking up at the dirt ceiling that he could no longer see in the darkness. “Washing? Can we do it again now?”
“Some go mad, get lost in the ecstasy of it.”
“I don’t care,” Maxx said. “I am not like most, I am singular. I am the Superguardian. Resume the washing and show me how I will kill the unkillable.”
Maxx didn’t care who the woman was. He never asked for a name, he only followed the directions that were revealed in visions and when it was time to continue the washing, the old woman whose face he never saw, always found him.
When he retrieved the Growth Amulet from the swamp, the woman was impressed and told him that she was happy that he did not die when he seized the amulet, but his ability to wield it was a test of his ability to acquire the weapon he desired. With the amulet, he was ready to enact the grisly ritual to open the doorway to Kútmómɛ.The Growth Amulet is known to boost the arcane powers of a Fonlander by increasing the size of their ecstatic gland, and through long hours of death magic washing the woman had given Maxx one of his own. She had christened Maxx a Fonlander.
“That light,” Maxx says excitedly, “you see it? We’re almost there.”
He moves faster and when his companions on this journey realize he is flying, they fly to keep up.
“Do you feel that, Pristine?” Shini asks discreetly. Maxx isn’t listening to them, he can only hear the call of the Blight Maker even if there is no actual sound in the maze other than the group of adventurers, but Shini doesn’t want to risk angering Maxx at this critical stage of their journey.
“What are we approaching, Shini?” Pultine asks and Zaccheus listens with a look of concern that matches the worry on Shini’s face.
“I have read the Scroll of Jo’s Time Chamber and that is where I found the tale of the Blight Maker. It is said that Gu went on a rampage after he made it and he went to Legba’s Disc to finally do what no one thought could be done and he left a path of death in his wake, many Fonlanders were sent here then, anything that was between him and Owuo. They battled and of course Gu was able to best Owuo. While on his back, Owuo wept tears of his aduro, his poison that is his lifeblood, and he begged Gu for his life. He said that the weapon he wielded was a perversion of Death Magic and if it obtained his power, the Blight Maker would be the end of the Fonlands. But Gu was undeterred and as he lifted the mighty weapon, ready to end Owuo for good, the Mother-Father themselves intervened because they saw what Owuo saw. That the Detritus Witch had used Gu to fashion a weapon that could contain the power of Owuo and once it did, it would poison Gu and eventually drive him mad before he died, leaving the Blight Maker to its rightful, more cruel owners.”
“The Death Witches,” Zacchaeus and Pultine said in unison.
“We have come too far not to use it to get out of Kútmómɛ,” Shini says, “but if Maxx takes it out of here, it is only a matter of time before the Death Witches get hold of it. The Blight Maker will kill Maxx. And who knows if the Mother-Father will let him kill Owuo.”
“Not now,” Pultine said, “not with what’s threatening existence. Maxx was sent here to die so that Detritus could get the Blight Maker. This is not a good time to be dealing with a threat from them. We have much more pressing things to deal with.”
“What could be more pressing than a door to Kútmómɛ opened and the possibility of Detritus getting Blight Maker? If the legends are true, there are hundreds of Death Witches who were banished here. What if Detritus is trying to free them and Maxx is making that possible as we speak? I don’t want more of us to be stranded here, but can we in good conscience allow him to open another doorway with Blight Maker? Knowing that even the Vodun Gu was susceptible to the manipulation of the witches. He will not be wielding it, he will be a weapon, just like I was. He will believe himself to be in control up to the moment when he loses his life completely. It would be a mercy if we could overpower him and kill him…”
“You ain’t killing Maxx,” Zacchaeus says gruffly. “I got my eye on him. I won’t let him hurt nobody. I say we let him lay hands on this thing, open the doorway so y’all can both get back. Maybe I can drag him through without the Blight Maker.”
“We need it to pass through,” Shini says. “It is the only magic available to us strong enough to get us through. If he is wielding it, we will be at his mercy. I think you should take it, Pristine. Even if it corrupts you, you have a stronger will than all of us combined. You can resist it long enough to get us back and to hopefully send it back here.”
As they talk and follow Maxx at a distance, there is a violet-red light on the walls of the maze that gets more intense and eventually they stop as Maxx stands before a large weapon on a pedestal in the middle of the room at the center of the maze in the castle of Kútmómɛ. The weapon itself is all black, but the violet-red glow around it seems to emanate from it. The glow pulses and there is a soft droning sound that fills the room. They can all feel the power pushing against them and the push intensifies when the energy pulses. It isn’t painful, but it is easier to stand at a distance, the repulsive force seems to be more intense the closer that you come to the black weapon. But Maxx takes deliberate steps closer, one foot at a time, inching closer.
Shini looks to Pultine and Zacchaeus watches Maxx. After a moment he takes steps closer to the Blight Maker, moving faster than Maxx and slowly catching up to him.
“If he takes the weapon, he will seal his fate, Pristine,” Shini says.
“I think that you underestimate the Superguardian,” Pultine says after a moment as the energy pulses around them. “I know that he has been driven mad, but he will stop at nothing to avenge Bludon and that means wrestling whatever power that thing holds until he gets back to the Fonlands. I don’t think it is a coincidence that this journey will free you from your isolation. I don’t think that we are here by chance. This is strange and I am scared, but I feel that Maxx has earned the right to wield that weapon. I was with him when he watched half his world die. He has earned this moment and whatever comes next, we will deal with it, Zacchaeus and I.”
“And me,” Shini says reluctantly. “I don’t know Maxx, but I do know you. And I am so happy to be free of the Death Witch’s control that I will do anything in my power to oppose them. And I will finally see Ahdis. But are we just letting this being die because it is convenient for us? We are Fonlanders, we have a better shot of surviving it than he does.”
“There you go again underestimating the Superguardian,” Pultine says. “Brace yourself. He is getting close to laying hands on it. Zacchaeus will ensure that he uses it to take us back to the Fonlands.”
Maxx stands before the awesome power of the Blight Maker and if he doesn’t brace himself, he will be pushed back to the halls of the maze that he had taken to stand here. The power of the Blight Maker is awesome and Maxx has never experienced anything like it. There is a central computer on Bludon that is the collective knowledge of every Guardian ever manufactured on the planet before the liberation of the Guardians, and it also contains the knowledge of Bludonians scientists and engineers. This central computer is the Superconsciousness that powers every Guardian including Maxx even after the liberation and it serves as a charging station for Guardians who choose to use it as such. It generates immense power that fuels the entire planet. Even compared to that giant planetary power, the Blight Maker manages to dwarf it. It is what Maxx imagines it is like to stand face to face with a giant star. The weapon is large, but it is not the size of a star, but maybe it is somehow as dense. Maxx stares at it in wonder while his body begins to quake ever so slightly as his muscles strain against the force pushing him back. Then he feels a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you ready?” Zacchaeus says to him. “I get the feeling once you put a hand on that thing, I won’t be able to talk to you like this. But don’t forget that you gotta get us back to the Fonlands.”
“That’s the first thing…” Maxx says but he trails off. “Zacchaeus, I want to reach out for it. I know how to get us back to the Fonlands, it is telling me.” Suddenly, Maxx is no longer straining. The energy that emanates from the weapon and pushes everyone else back, is no longer repelling Maxx, but it passes into his body and moves through him in a sensation that is very familiar to him. He is being washed in the energy of the Blight Maker and he can feel it stripping away the deep seeded magic of the Death Witch who had given him an ecstatic gland and suffused him with Death Magic. He is being filled up with the power of the Blight Maker.
“You ok?” Zacchaeus asks with concern. “You looking red and purple, more than before.”
“Let me commune with it for a moment,” Maxx says. “I will take us home, but I must acclimate to its power. My mind is clear for the first time in a long time, Zacchaeus. Please, just give me a moment. I will tell you all when I am ready.”
Zacchaeus goes back to tell Pultine and Shini what Maxx is doing and Maxx closes his eyes and surrenders himself to the Blight Maker. He is not sure how much time passes before he opens his eyes again, but when he sees it, Maxx reaches out a hand and grabs the elaborate hilt. It is warm metal in his hand and even though he knows it must weigh a ton, it is as light as a feather and he holds it up over his head.
“Let’s get back to the Fonlands,” he says to his friends and there is a brilliant blast of violet-red light.
PRL Serials 