Newcomer
Level: 8
Posts: 3/9
EXP: 1935
Next: 252
Since: 04-01-10
From: Earth
Last post: 2599 days
Last view: 2599 days
|
Okay, folks. As promised, Chapter 2 of this little mini-epic I'm writing is now fleshed out and hereby submitted for your approval. Chapter 3 shall soon be forthcoming...enjoy!
Pac-Man Begins
Chapter 2 - Judgement Day (The Near Past)
Many of those knowledgeable in the ways of metaphysical matters, magic, and prophecies within the dimension of Mazeinar had, for a long time, believed that Cruise Elroy had used the last of his power to place a spell upon himself just before he had succumbed to the last insurgency of Pucks some twenty-five thousand years previous, a spell which would have allowed his soul to roam the realms of Mazeinar freely for all eternity, waiting for the opportune moment when he could be embraced by the heart of one creature, Puck or Monster, of negative mindset and use that creature to wreak havoc across the dimensional plains once again. These same wise men and scholars had long warned of and predicted a "Hundred Years War" which would occur in Mazeinar when this prophecy involving Cruise Elroy came to pass. Though many agreed that there had been evidence, based on their studies of the power emanating from The Wellspring, that Cruise Elroy had in fact used the power of magic to make himself spiritually prominent within the land, many wrote the warning of the scholars off as pure folly, believing there to be no negative thoughts or hearts amongst the Pucks and Monsters of Mazeinar. Everyone had, for a period of twenty-five thousand some years, lived in peace and harmony and mutual cooperation. It was unimaginable that the demonic spirit of a Puck conquerer who died long ago, should his spirit even still be roaming within Mazeinar, could cause another war, and as a result the beings of Mazeinar had grown complacent over the many thousands of years of peace. They had grown to believe that the prophecies of these wise men and scholars were nothing more than old wives' tales fueled by fears of another war and used to keep their people in line. They couldn't have been more wrong!
For the evil spirit of Cruise Elroy did, in fact, roam freely through the dimension of Mazeinar, quite enjoying the blissfully complacent attitudes growing amongst the people and waiting for his chance to use one of these creatures to his own aims. He knew that doubt was the beginning of fear, and that fear was the beginning of hatred, and that hatred served as fuel for the flames of war. And he liked the fact that doubt had begun to creep into the hearts of many a Monster over the course of time. There was no arguing that he Pucks had risen to dominance in Mazeinar over the last twenty-five thousand years, securing eminent domain over the Xtreme Realm from which the power of The Wellspring, the source of all the Pucks' magical power, flowed freely. The Pucks had not conquered it through any means of force whatsoever. Rather, their dominance over the Xtreme Realm had simply grown over time out of matters of convenience, so that the Pucks who used wizardry and sorcery as their means to benefit could be closest to the source of that power since the Monsters could no longer absorb The Wellspring's power as a means to rejuvenate their bodies. The Xtreme Realm had therefore become the exclusive realm of the Pucks and a very select few Monsters responsible for it's upkeep, a realm from which the new Grand Overseers ruled just as benevolently as they had in their former dimension of Parcenda. All of the Pucks and many of the Monsters, imbued by the love and compassion emanating from the Xtreme Realm, accepted this to be the status quo and had never thought to question the gentle authority of the Grand Overseers. But some Monsters were doubtful at best. They realized that the dimension of Mazeinar had once been their domain and questioned the Pucks' eventual dominion over it, despite the fact that that dominion had been mutually agreed on for the most part in the interest of mutual cooperation and survival, and that both species needed each other to sustain. Many Monsters had begun to therefore lightly rebel against established authority and dabble in the ways of wizardry, long ago mutually agreed to be the exclusive domain of the Pucks and therefore off-limits and illegal to the Monsters so as not to create imbalance within Mazeinar, just as technology and industry remained off-limits to all but the Monsters.
But the scales of balance had already been tipped, due to the doubts that had crept into the heart of many a Monster. And Cruise Elroy looked down upon them and reveled in their doubt, and saw that it was good. For he planned to use the Monsters' own doubt against them, and turn them against the Pucks in his spiteful vengeance, heralding in a new chaotic period of war which would end the sickening peace and prosperity which had permeated Mazeinar for the last two hundred fifty centuries. And all he needed now was one truly dark heart to embrace him, a Monster who had allowed his doubts to turn to fear and thus embraced hatred for the Pucks, one who was born a natural leader, one who was a mover and a shaker as well as he was a talker, one who could act as a charismatic speaker and promoter for Cruise Elroy's own aims and become so drunk with his own power that he wouldn't even know he was fulfilling Cruise Elroy's original dreams of conquering Mazeinar and all outlying dimensions. And finally, after twenty-five thousand long years, Cruise Elroy had found a Monster whose dark heart would be accepting of and harbor his demonic spirit. That Monster's name was Shadow Blinky.
Much to the chagrin of the prominent Shadow family which had birthed him, Blinky was the black sheep in the family. The third of five children, he was always getting into childhood mischief, deliberately and knowingly making the lives of those whom he dealt with, both Pucks and Monsters, a living hell. Stealing and hiding manufactured foods from the Pucks, stealing and breaking his siblings' toys, and causing vandalism and sometimes irreparable damage to the Monsters' mazes were just a few of the ways in which Blinky expressed his natural-born hatred and disdain for the painful yet necessary-for-survival chompings he was forced to endure from the Pucks on a daily basis. Blinky hated pain, and could not bring himself to reasonably understand why he and the Monsters were forced to endure it to survive while the Pucks were required to endure none. Such thoughts as these perverted his views of the Pucks and of history in general. Over time, he brought himself to falsely believe that the Pucks had initiated a grand scheme to subtly manipulate the Monsters of Mazeinar and take the entire dimension for themselves after ruining their own dimension through warfare and their supposed ignorance and apathy. As Blinky grew into an adolescent, his hatred for Pucks grew along with his violent outbursts, and after a final violent spat with his mother and father which resulted in the horrific murder by him of his entire family, he finally ran away from his home level for good, escaping justice and running to one of the most remote and unexplored levels in Mazeinar and isolating himself from society in general.
Despite all of his misgivings, Shadow Blinky was not stupid...quite the opposite, in fact. He had certainly been smart enough, despite his hatred for Pucks, to convince another Puck to accompany him on his journey to isolate himself from society so that Blinky could continue to be chomped and therefore survive. Dul-Harold, a rather dim-witted, lovingly-stupid Puck too inept to grasp the basic concepts of life who had been assigned to do odd jobs for and act as a housekeeper to the Shadow family, had always adored Blinky and looked upon him as a big brother of sorts. But Blinky, being of superior intellect, had no real use for the slow-thinking Puck as a valid confidante, and tolerated his presence only out of necessity for his own survival. He therefore often mistreated the Puck who was too lovingly stupid and ignorant to understand or care, often using him as a gopher or looking down on him on the same level that an Earthling hominid would look down upon a herd of cattle. For Dul-Harold served as a constant reminder to Blinky why he so vehemently despised this necessary yet barely tolerated species, and it fueled his hatred. As long as Dul-Harold was useful to Blinky, he would keep him around. But the minute his usefulness came to and end, Blinky swore that he would kill him, relieving him of the three lives granted to all Pucks by nature within a matter of seconds. And Blinky, having isolated himself from society and the watchful eyes of the Grand Overseers, planned and plotted to make sure that the day when Monsters would no longer need to live amongst Pucks to survive would not be too much farther off. For Blinky, his dark heart now fully infected with the demonic spirit of Cruise Elroy which had imbued itself upon the young wayward Monster during the murder of the Shadow family, planned a grand scheme which he himself would orchestrate...the taking back of Mazeinar for the Monsters who would serve him under his iron fist and also the ultimate destruction of all of the Pucks and of the rebellious Monsters who would not bow before his might. Shadow Blinky would rule over all of the dimension and it's beings for as long as he lived, and all would sing his praises for the liberation of Mazeinar for all eternity!
Again, Shadow Blinky was not stupid in the least. He realized that in order for a scheme that grand to work well, he would need to surround himself with supporters, like-minded Monsters dedicated to his cause who could spread his words and philosophies for him far beyond his hiding place. And he would also need to imbue himself in the ways of the mystical arts which had for so long been denied him by those who wrote and enforced the by-laws of Mazeinar, so that he could use the power of the Pucks' own magic against them. And in order to do this, he would need to gain control of the Xtreme Realm from which he would draw upon all the power of The Wellspring to cast his "ultimate spell" which would allow him to rule all of Mazeinar and allow the Monsters to become more powerful creatures capable not only of sustaining without intervention from the Pucks, but capable of killing the Pucks simply by making contact with them. In this manner, Shadow Blinky could then be closest to the very source of power which would enable him to use sorcery to his own twisted aims...The Wellspring. So, many decades after he had run away with Dul-Harold, Shadow Blinky, with a hard hateful heart, a mastery of sorcery and black arts at his command, and a mission which would ultimately spell the end of the Pucks' dominance of Mazeinar, Blinky set his diabolical plans into motion.
Shadow Blinky surrounded himself with Monster supporters which the spirit of Cruise Elroy had led him to believe could be the most loyal to him either due to the strength of the doubts and fears which ran rampant inside them or due to their previous relations with Blinky, and he gathered them together to be his twelve disciples: Noxious Terrell, Luscious Johnny, Speedy Pinky, Million Max, Bashful Inky, Curly Sue, Steel Ridgeway, Doubtful Thomas, Wayward Tim, Slick Veronica, Pokey Clyde, and Johann Sebastian. And Blinky turned them all to his way of thinking and believing using the same subtle manipulations that his followers themselves would use clandestinely on the rest of the Monsters in Mazeinar en masse to turn them against the Pucks. And through these subtle manipulations by his disciples, Shadow Blinky managed to secretly, without the Pucks ever knowing, turn millions upon millions of once blissfully happy Monsters into his anxious and determined supporters by promising them a life filled with great power, free and independent of the pain imposed upon them by the Pucks on a daily basis. Without a doubt, Shadow Blinky held the cards, and was slowly preparing to play his set of aces.
But a scant very few Monsters, including a number of his own disciples, had allowed their fears and doubts to make them question the validity of Shadow Blinky's ultimate plan. While all of these doubtful Monsters who chose not to align themselves with Shadow Blinky's directives were secretly killed to assure that word of the upcoming overthrow of Mazeinar would not reach the Pucks, Bashful Inky, Doubtful Thomas, and Johann Sebastian, who had often expressed questions about their own loyalties amongst themselves, were allowed to live for the time being. For Speedy Pinky, the second greatest wizard amongst the Monster disciples and the most loyal and dedicated to Shadow Blinky's cause, had brought the supposed disloyalty of the aforementioned three Monsters to Blinky's attention in order to win not only favorable position amongst the ranks, but also to win favorable position in Shadow Blinky's cold heart. She was in love with Blinky, knowing that Blinky represented true power, and Speedy Pinky wished nothing less than to be chosen to be his queen after the dimension of Mazeinar was completely conquered.
Because of their supposed disloyalty, Shadow Blinky decided that he would not have Inky, Thomas, and Sebastian killed immediately. Instead, knowing that they had gained the trust of the Pucks such so that they had limited access to the Xtreme Realm for maintenance work and such, he decided to use them as pawns in the ultimate overthrow of the Xtreme Realm, sending them to open a portal by way of their limited and combined knowledge of sorcery which would allow Shadow Blinky to pass through and use the power of The Wellspring emanating from the realm to cast his doomsday spell. Blinky knew he would be sending his subjects to die for the cause, for he knew that the practice of sorcery by any Monster within the boundaries of the Xtreme Realm which carried any deliberate destructive effects whatsoever to the surrounding time-space continuum was punishable by being chomped his or her last! All Blinky had to do was falsely convince Inky, Thomas, and Sebastian that they would survive the encounter by the timely arrival of himself and by the conquering of Mazeinar and thus the changing of all of the Monsters into new, powerful creatures. And Blinky did convince them of such successfully with the same manipulative nature he and his disciples had used to turn millions of Monsters against the Pucks, all the while knowing that the three Monsters in question were going to succumb to the Pucks and that they, along with the Pucks, were more worthless than dirt to him. Shadow Blinky also realized that all Monsters authorized to enter the Xtreme Realm must be accompanied by a Puck escort at all times, so Blinky would make sure that he sent that loyal halfwit idiot buffoon Dul-Harold along with them for good measure, as Blinky and his disciples would have no further use for Dul-Harold once the deal went down and everything hit the fan.
On the fateful day in question, which in later years would become known to both Monsters and Pucks alike as "Judgement Day", Bashful Inky, Doubtful Thomas, and Johann Sebastian, accompanied by Dul-Harold, were allowed access to enter the Xtreme Realm, and they immediately made their way towards a level located in Zone 1 known as "Electric Avenue". Shadow Blinky had wisely sent these wishy-washy disciples on their mission on a day when he knew that the council of Grand Overseers would be convening for a meeting in a room at the Domicile Of Dormitories located in Zone 5, a hospice for the few Monsters responsible for the upkeep of the Xtreme Realm whom actually lived on the premises. Not only would the Grand Overseers not be present to stop the treachery of the Monsters before they executed their plan, but they would be closest to the very Monsters who would soon become powerful creatures capable of killing the Pucks when Shadow Blinky cast his ultimate spell. As stated before, Shadow Blinky was not stupid in the least. He was cold, calculated, and purely evil, quite the opposite of Dul-Harold, who, upon reaching "Electric Avenue" with the other Monsters, engaged himself in the most logical thought he had ever had in his life: "How are they going to cast this spell of theirs when they have brought no spare spell energy in to filter the power of The Wellspring through?" Indeed, the carrying of any spell filter energy source into the Xtreme Realm by any Monster or Puck not previously condoned by the Grand Overseers was considered a criminal offense. "Could they somehow be smuggling it in?", Dul-Harold thought to himself? And that's when Dul-Harold suddenly realized that the elixir he had been given to drink by Shadow Blinky the night before during the rebel Monsters' premature celebration of their upcoming victory against the Pucks was actually liquefied spell filter energy! The Monsters had literally smuggled it into the Xtreme Realm inside of Dul-Harold, and once they utilized it to open their portal, the spell filter energy within Dul-Harold would activate causing him to explode from the inside out, killing him and removing all three of his lives at once!
There was no time to escape! The Monster's were beginning to surround Dul-Harold, and he now knew why. Frightened by the prospect of inevitable death and now realizing that he had blindly and lovingly followed Shadow Blinky only to be discarded like so much trash when his usefulness had ended, Dul-Harold suddenly and heroically acted, lashing out against the Monsters defensively and managing to chomp Bashful Inky before he was subdued and frozen in place by the spell energy activated from within him by the remaining two Monsters. Thus, Dul-Harold exploded with a death scream, the colorful spell energy emanating forth from him, and a mystical portal opened through which Shadow Blinky appeared. He directed his remaining Monsters, Doubtful Thomas and Johann Sebastian, to act quickly and make their escape through the "Domicile Of Dormitories", leading the two of them to believe that the area was empty and free of Pucks...but Blinky knew the truth. He grinned evilly from one side of himself to the other as he imagined the fate they had met that day at the hands of the Grand Overseers who were gathered there en masse, the Grand Overseers having no doubt who had caused the sudden shenanigans which had just taken place on Electric Avenue. The move, Shadow Blinky had calculated, would serve to distract the Grand Overseers now headed to Electric Avenue to close the opened portal and leave him free and clear to secretly make his way to a level of the Xtreme Realm in Zone 8 known as "The Eight Steps" from which the power of The Wellspring flowed most freely. And, just as the Grand Overseers used their mastery of wizardry to close the open portal, Shadow Blinky ascended to his perch in The Eight Steps, with no one around who could stop or oppose him. And at that fateful moment, Blinky channeled the full power of The Wellspring through himself, and cast his ultimate spell.
A great depression in the energies emanating from The Wellspring were felt by the Grand Overseers and all Puck wizards across Mazeinar, such so that it rendered them weak and powerless as Shadow Blinky channeled the full power of The Wellspring through himself as the entire dimension shuddered with great quaking, threatening to tear itself asunder. Blinky laughed with evil glee as he watched the result of the spell he had cast upon the land unfold before his eyes. First, the Xtreme Realm was enveloped in an interdimensional "shield" such so that no Puck would be able to pass through it, excluding all not already there from entering it and preventing the Grand Overseers and others who were lingering there from escaping, as well as preventing the escape of the free-flowing energies of The Wellspring from emanating past it, a plan concocted by Blinky to prevent any Puck wizards not in the Xtreme Realm from having access to the power line of their sorcery thus rendering it useless to them. Second, the levels of Mazeinar, beginning with those in the Xtreme Realm and continuing to those realms flowing outward from it, began to fill with thousands upon thousands of strange floating pellets, orbs with glowed with and emanated a radioactive spatial frequency unlike any experienced before in Mazeinar. And finally, The Wellspring, newly tainted with evil, changed and reshaped the level from which Blinky's ultimate spell had been cast, remaking it into an area representative of the image and likeness of Shadow Blinky's own dark heart...thus, The Eight Steps was transformed into a place of hot misery which became known as the "Stairway To Hell". And Shadow Blinky reveled in it all, overjoyed that he had actually pulled it off and that the entire dimension of Mazeinar would now belong to him!
Within minutes, it was over. Most of the Pucks in Mazeinar, cut off from the loving energies of The Wellspring and the watchful eyes of the Grand Overseers, ran around in circles and in fear for their families in the aftermath trying to figure out just what the had happened, many in awe and wonder of the strange glowing orbs which now filled their mazes. The Grand Overseers, their contact with the outside world cut off, rushed to the newly transformed "Stairway To Hell" to apprehend the Monster they now knew had caused such a massive surge within The Wellspring and who had caused all of the confusion running rampant within Mazeinar. Thus, several Grand Overseers rushed to deal with Shadow Blinky just as they had dealt with Doubtful Thomas and Johann Sebastian minutes before. but what they found waiting for them was not the timid, blue, weak Monster the Pucks had become accustomed to dealing with over the millennia. For Shadow Blinky had been literally transformed, made newly invulnerable by the constant stream of radiation which emanated from the nearby pellets which now permeated all of the levels of Mazeinar. Blinky's eyes bulged frighteningly from their sockets, his mouth had disappeared, and his ethereal form had become a color consummate with his hateful, murderous personality: Red. The color of blood. Horrified, and unable to use their sorcery against him due to the new tainting of evil within The Wellspring, several Grand Overseers and other Puck servants threw themselves at him in an attempt to chomp him outright. It was their first mistake. Upon making contact with the newly invulnerable Shadow Blinky, the Pucks who had attacked him withered to nothing and died, losing the first of their three lives.
As Shadow Blinky considered the dead Pucks laying at his tails and laughing evilly, he knew that all throughout the Xtreme Realm and through all of the dimension of Mazeinar that the same thing was happening. Monsters everywhere, affected by the radiation emanating from the pellets which now permeated the various mazes, were being transformed into insanely powerful creatures much as Shadow Blinky himself had been transformed, each turning a color consummate with their inner souls, and each knowing that the plans which Blinky had set into motion had been successfully pulled off and that they now had an obligation to serve their new master and destroy all the Pucks across Mazeinar, an obligation they were more than happy to fulfill due to the promises and propaganda that had been drilled into their minds by Shadow Blinky's disciples. Thus, all the Monsters across the land of Mazeinar turned violently upon the Pucks with a vengeance, killing them off by the millions. Throughout Mazeinar, Monsters affected by the emissions of the pellets repeatedly flashed with sickly yellow energy as they absorbed more and more of the pellets' magical radiation just before they were transformed into their new invulnerable forms, no longer dependent on the Pucks' chompings to stay alive. And the Pucks, their presence amongst the Monsters no longer required, fell before the wrath of their former allies losing lives upon lives upon lives. Within the locked boundaries of the Xtreme Realm, the Grand Overseers and their Puck heralds whom had been assembled at the Domicile Of Dormitories all succumbed to the Monsters gathered there, their means of escape closed off to them by the magical undoings of Blinky. And from the various realms of Mazeinar, those direct disciples of Blinky still living made their way to the Xtreme Realm from which their new master heralded to participate in the great victory celebration which would follow, all reveling in the ultimate destruction of the Pucks which had taken place and reveling in the destruction of the Pucks yet to come.
Without a doubt, Shadow Blinky and his Monster disciples were clearly in control of all of Mazeinar. And deep in Blinky's dark heart, the spirit of Cruise Elroy smiled, pleased at the chaos and havoc that had been created by the new Antichrist of a Monster which had willfully and unwittingly accepted him as his lord and personal saviour.
|