[Neraphym]

Neraphym grabs the paper out of Rhesal's hands and reads it.

[Darkness]

It reads,
"If my tower ye seek entry,
Riddles three must complete thee.
Go ye now to the land of salt,
And a riddle your mind assault.
But know ye this, the way dissolve,
Lest you name this riddle's solve."

[Snowy]

"Comon Neraphym I know where this is." Rhesal and Neraphym leave.

[Neraphym]

From high above, Neraphym approaches the Tower in his Starship, Legend. He fires his Ion cannon at the tower...

[Darkness]

The ion power surges through the tower walls, through the magic that binds it together. The cracks that had sealed and disappeared when the tower came together suddenly showed again, and light glowed through them that glowed brighter and brighter, slowly building to a greater and greater intensity. It began as a small, reddish glow, but built to a bright yellow over time.

As the light greatened, great storm clouds rolled in, covering the skies as far as the eye could see. A cold, dark water began falling, and then it seemed there was ice mixed in with that rain, a sort of rain-hale. Electrical surges scattered through the air, coupled with strange lash-outs of magic, almost like solar flares of the sun, only of a mystical sort. Suddenly, the great tower Neraphym had recently built fell from the sky, no longer supported from the strange levitational magic that all the buildings in the city went by. It hit the ground from its fall and shattered. Another building over there fell as well, crumbling as well.

Suddenly, the great platform the market was on slanted at almost a 45 degree angle to one side as a whole half of it lost its power. People, wares, and some buildings began sliding and falling off the edge, and there were suddenly seen hundreds of mages coming out and raising there hands as they called the magic to them. The falling things halted, but they could not get back up.

Buildings continued falling from the sky. The great Tower of the Arcane, the haven of wanderers and mages, shifted ominously in its place in the heavens as it slanted slightly. The entire sea platform that held its place in the sky fell quite suddenly, and screams were heard from the people on it as it careened closer and closer to the ground... And then it hit. The screams from that area were immediately silenced as hundreds of lives were immediately destroyed.

Lightning suddenly forked out from the tower, striking buildings and towers. It seemed almost that sources of magic were like lightning rods to it. A great bold stabbed through a mage on the platform that held the market. And then another, and another. People began sliding again, and the great platform began turning even more, until it was almost 60 degrees slanted. Mages fell almost every second, and the platform slowly continued turning until it was at 90 degrees. Everything on it was freefalling. And then, going down as well, was the platform itself. It flew towards the ground and crashed spectacularly, breaking into hundreds of pieces.

At the same time, lightning was also streaking out at the Tower of the Arcane. Great bolts of energy were flying forward and burning straight into the walls, making great explosions. It too began to begin falling, but the lightning beat it to its destruction. It suddenly collapsed in on itself, and mere rubble fell towards the ground.

By now, the light was almost blinding. Almost no building remained in the air, save the Tower of Labyrinths itself. And then, suddenly, it exploded. There was a deafening roar of sound, and huge pieces of marble and other rocks were thrown everywhere, in all directions. Pieces were thrown straight at the starship. In mere moments, the ship was in near critical condition, having taken 4,100,000 damage. The hull was smashed in, along with other critical parts like the energy cells and the fuel holding chambers. The ship was going to be going down, and fast.

Rocks were also thrown in all other directions. Great boulders hit the few buildings that had survived their falls, splintering them like a rock thrown at glass. Rocks skidded along the ground, cutting great tears in the earth. A great dust rose in the air from the heavy weight that had been thrown into the ground in the mere ten minutes since the first shot had been fired at the Tower, making it hard to breath and hard to see for any of those few survivors.

Meanwhile, the Legend careened towards the ground, fire spurting out of several parts of it. Fortunately for Neraphym, the ship was not falling straight. It was falling backwards, with the back of the ship flying towards the ground. This also presented a problem for him, though, as the fires were mostly coming from the back of the ship, and were now all being pushed towards the front of it.

Though the free fall ended all too soon as the ship crashed into the ground, the whole back being decimated as cleanly as if a Zykvaryyx had blasted it with ten consecutive heavy weapon shots in the same place. It fell forward, luckily landing right side up, pointed straight at the place where the mass of the pieces of the Tower of Labyrinths had fallen, directly below where it had flown in the air.

Neraphym had, by some stroke of luck, survived, though not without serious injuries. He had broken his right arm and his left leg in the fall, as well as several ribs and possibly his collar bone, along with hitting his head and getting a large cut from his left temple down to his cheekbone, and several other serious cuts along his whole body. He was also covered in dirt and dust that got in his eyes and wounds and made him even more pained. Neraphym was also at the time under a medium sized piece of metal from a wall, though that presented little a problem. He had, in total, taken 9128 damage. His Cosmic Elemental that had been accompanying him had been destroyed when a piece of the roof had fallen on him.

And there, plainly in Neraphym's view through the shattered glass that had been the front of the ship's bridge, were two riders, one on plated in armor on a seemingly black horse and one clad in that of the forest on a white horse, both unharmed, only a few feet in front of the ship. They were slightly obscured by the dust flying through the air, but Neraphym recognized them nonetheless. They sat there watching the bloodied and broken elementalist, not even flinching.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym staggers to his feet, dazed and in pain. He rips off tatters of his robe and shoves them in his wounds to stop the bleeding. Neraphym limps his way to the elevator shaft. Unfortunately, the lift broke free during the crash. He had to climb down. Slowly, he made his way down towards the bottom of the shaft. He could see light comming from the port side of the shaft. When he reached the bottom, he crawled through a small hole in the side and out onto a chunck of the outer hull. From there, it was a short drop to solid ground. Neraphym jumped. He came down hard, falling to his knees, but he got up. He limped away from the ship and surveyed the damage.

"Hmm... the main reactor core survived... the hull and engines are badly damaged. It could take quite some time to repair."

Neraphym then focused his attention on the horsemen. Calling his own steed, Xylphion, Neraphym mounted up and approached the horsemen...

[Darkness]

As Neraphym moved forward on his noble steed, there was suddenly an explosion from behind him that threw him off his horse. The explosion did not destroy the main reactor core, luckily, but it seemed to be caused by some part of fuel that had seeped down the elevator shaft that had come in contact with the fires.

As Neraphym would have been standing up to steady his horse, there was another fuel-related explosion. The floor from the above deck of the ship suddenly fell... On top of the horse. It was immediately killed.

The horseman continue to stare at Neraphym.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym limps over towards the horsemen.

"You... why? Why did you destroy this city?"

[Darkness]

As you limp towards them, you trip on a bit of rubble, fall, and cut the band attaching your money pouch to your belt on a piece of metal. All of the money spills out, conveniently into a hole in the ground. As you frantically try to grab it, you make the hole fill up with rocks and the money is lost.

"Our fault? The destruction of this city, the loss of millions of lives are your fault. And it is not just this city that your actions have affected. All through this world -- all through this universe -- people are being impacted by your stupidity. Space stations explode in mid-space or fall like a comet towards the world they orbit, falling on a planet's city and killing even more people. On that planet itself nature goes beserk, and the forest animals attack eachother and adventures before dying myseriously themselves. Great demons climb from newly opened chasms, slaying all those they see and toppling buildings. The oceans rise, flooding cities.

And the city of Aderon did take fire. And the city of Forlon did sink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned. And the earth was carried up upon the city of Durencia, that in the place of the city there became a great mountain.

And in one place they were heard to cry, saying, 'O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and then perhaps our brethren would have been spared, and they would not have been burned in that great city Darinicus, after the inhabitants thereof were slain by demons.

And the highways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough. And many great and notable cities were sunk, and many were burned, and many were shaken till the buildings thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate. And there were some cities which remained, but the damage was exceedingly great, and the inhabitants thereof were slain.

And there were some who were carried away in the whirlwind, and whither they went no man knoweth, save they know that they were carried away. And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightning, and the quaking of the earth.

And behold, the rocks were rent in twain, they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the lan.

And it came to pass that when the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the storm, and the tempest, and the quakings of the earth did cease, for behold, they did last for about the space of three hours, and it was said by some that the time was great, nevertheless, all these great and terrible things were done ina bout the space of three hours, and then behold, there was darkness upon the face of the land.

And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness. And there could be no lgith, because of the darknes, neither candles, neither torches, neither could there be fire kindled with their find and exceedingly dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all.

And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land. And it came to pass that the darkness did last for the space of three days that there was no light seen, and ye did sleep through this length of time, and there was great mourning among all the surviving people continually.

And this great destruction is all your doing."

[Neraphym]

"I deny this. I called forth no demons... I summoned no tempests... I did not cause the earth to quake! It was you! It was your evil tower! It was not me!"

[Darkness]

There's suddenly another explosion behind Neraphym, and he is thrown forward. Apparently, it was his horse's corspe! Pieces of flesh fly everywhere.

"A tower made of that which is good has no power to create evil, for nothing that is good can create evil. Your actions have caused these deaths. The tower which did hold the world in balance, you destroyed. It is your doing."

[Neraphym]

"Why did such a tower exist in the first place?"

[Darkness]

"The tower bound the universe together."

[Neraphym]

"If that is true, then why do we still exist?"

[Darkness]

"The magics that once existed are slowly falling apart. This world, this universe, is coming to an end. It is most probable that this world is becoming undone as we stand here."