Needs More Bush (Azteca, the Beginning)

(I hope you all enjoy your post-Christmas withdrawals. I happened to make out like a bandit, despite my parents not wanting to spend money on me this year - I got a Playstation 4 and enough Gamestop card money to buy the Evergreen Bundle so don't be shocked to see Christina with a new weapon and a new mount. Christina wasn't the only one to get a Christmas gift this year - Jody, my gym trainer, and my sister Ruth gave me enough $20 Wizard101 cards to extend the accounts of everyone but Christina by two months! Christina is still going until New Years.)

(So, as a late Christmas gift to you who have stuck with this series for so long, I give you an early Christmas gift... the beginning of the next World in Wizard101. Enjoy and have a happy 2015.)

"I've been having these dreams lately... like is any of this for real?" - Sora, Kingdom Hearts

The nightmare has been the same. It started out the first night I slept in my Watchtower Hall, right after we saved Avalon and were praised as heroes...

Don't own this picture, I got it off of Google Images

I see a comet, a flaming ball of ice, heading to a world, an innocent world. Dark magic wraps around it as it falls like a devilish bullet into the unsuspecting atmosphere...

See above

And then... destruction. I cry in horror, unable to save anyone, watching the people below burn as the comet's shockwave rips through the scaly natives of that world, killing everyone. I try to reverse time, cast a spell... but I am mute and frozen to the spot, watching the death...

And I wake in a cold sweat. The nightmares have started coming every night... and I hope Cy was ready for the wrath of a woman unable to sleep regular nights due to night terrors. What did this dream mean if it came every night? Was it an omen?

I dashed it out of my mind. It had been two weeks since we recovered the Sword of Kings and healed King Artorius and his kingdom. Two weeks of peace, but two weeks of no peaceful sleep for me. My foot kicked open the door and I stormed in.

"Cy! You had BETTER have a good reason to call me in when I'm cranky from lack of sleep!" I bit my tongue. I had just gotten on his good side, no need to ruin it now.

However, he paid my outburst no mind and told me about a friend of his.

"What the Black Mage is an Aztecathingie?" I said groggily.

"You don't know what that is?" he said. "Well, you can ask him yourself. You can reach his Observatory by the Stela Izuma."

"The who now?" I asked.

If I had been him, I would have reacted the way he did, rolling the eyes. "It's a large stone monument in the Royal Museum of Marley--- hello?"

I was gone. I knew about that monument - Amy Mistcloud had introduced me to Haley long ago. It had seen long ago but now I remembered the item clearly as day...

I found myself before the giant stone obelisk. I touched it as Amy had done... and it flared into blue light! I felt myself being pulled in...

And I was at Haley's Observatory. I heard noises I wish I hadn't and snuck over the edge of the platform...

The color of their chitinous exoskeletons was different, but I didn't forget those hideous insectoids... they were the brutes of Morganthe's dark army! I tried to sneak around them... and slipped down the slope with a thud that obviously drew their attention to me!

"Light Bringer!" cried one of them. "We crush!"

I sighed and whipped out my book. This was going to be tough... I should have alerted the others...

"Yo, fools!" said a voice.

The bugs turned their heads as did I. "What the..."

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the gum that sticks to your claws! I am your living nightmare! I am..." (poses) "Dawnblade Dame!"

Dashing dame of mystery,
Champion of light,
Swoops out of the shadows
Dawnblade slays the night

Somewhere some sorceress schemes
But her number's lame!

(3-2-1) Dawnblade Dame (When help you need, just call DD)
Dawnblade Dame (Let's get DANGEROUS)
Dawnblade Dame (Dawn-blade, Dawn-blade Dame!)

(Yeah, Disney is SO going to sue me for ripping off their Batman parody. ;P)

"Uh, I don't think the Goliaths are intimidated, Chrissy," I muttered as the bug-men charged at us.

(These two Goliath Rampagers aren't too tough compared to what you've dealt with in Avalon - they only have 2920 HP and are Fire.)

 

Needless to say, we defeated the foul bugs.

"What's with the outfit and the glowing wolf steed?" I asked. "What happened to your mine cart and your old armor?"

"The old armor was getting stinky and I didn't need it anymore," said Christina, smiling. "And the Watcher gave me this mount and this sweet blade, along with this..." She handed me a note.

Dear Sierra and friends...

I am so sincerely sorry I have spent so much time in Maple World and not enough with you. I know these little gifts won't make you forgive me for neglecting you, but I promise to watch over you. I will try to dedicate time to you when I can.

The Watcher 

"It's silly," I said. "Why would our Watcher neglect us... any why the wolf? It's creepy."

"Okay, I'll change to a better vehicle," said Christina.

"Ice skates?" I asked. "Seriously?"

(Christina got the Winterglide Skates and her outfit - which I stitched her old armor into - from the Winterland pack which is the second Christmas pack. Sadly, the skates are not permanent. :( )

Well, have fun skating for the beetles, Chris. (I think the Rampagers respawned because Christina had gotten the quest to fight them herself. Get away!)

 We found Professor Haley safe - he had been hiding in his house while we fought off the bugs.

 "Why were they attacking you?" I asked.

"I don't know!" he replied. "But they appeared just as I got a visitor, a Quetzal."

"A what?" asked Christina. I was confused as well.

"It's a winged serpent," said the professor. "I'm not surprised you don't know about them. They're supposed to be extinct... maybe this one hadn't heard? Quetzals are said to be ferocious and territorial... or extremely docile."

"That doesn't help," said Christina, cringing.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"Over there, I built a little home for it with the relics I had lying about," he said, pointing to a pile of relics which looked ancient in nature.

"I am not touching that thing," hissed Christina. I stepped towards the winged snake and extended my hand gently. It smiled and wrapped gently around my body. I shuddered but it seemed docile.

I slowly reached to the bone tube around the creature's neck but it slipped it off for me - it was like it was commanded to give this message to me. I pulled out a message scrawled in ancient text across the leaves... and they glowed and formed understandable words...

Great Wizards of Bartleby, Azteca trembles in the shadow of Xilbalba. Pacal Redmask, Tzecat Threestar, and Zaylin Reedwalker

"Azteca!" said Haley in shock. "How could that be? It was supposedly destroyed by a comet a decade ago. Look through the telescope in my observatory. Maybe I was wrong. Oh look, there's something else around the Quetzal's neck!"

I pulled it off and gasped in shock. A Spiral Key! Could this be the key to Azteca? But if it was destroyed, why would there be a key? We decided to check out the telescope.

I saw the stone egg Amy had talked to Haley about. It was still there.

"Oh nice," said Christina, but a glare from me prevented her from touching it.

We got to the observatory and Christina looked through the telescope. She gasped. "Carrot fairy, you had better look at this..."

I checked and my jaw dropped. I pulled away in horror.

"Creepy," said Christina. "I bet Morgie's responsible for this, why else would she send her grunts? They were trying to silence that snake!"

"Carrot fairy... what's wrong?" asked my friend.

"We need to get the team together, tell them to meet in Grace's office," I said.

"It must have been an illusion to protect the World," I said. "And now something has forced the illusion to drop."

"Has to be Morgie," muttered Christina. "We'd better take that little snake to somewhere safe."

"I'll give it to Cy," I said. "He can handle it better than I." I didn't like the way it was licking me.

"Oh yeah, I have a gift for you from the Watcher," said Christina. She opened a box...

"Meet Pumba," said Christina. "That's what she responds to. Oh, and drop by your Hall... the Watcher has another gift..."

It was the best Christmas ever. (Kudos to my little sister Anna, who has a child, for buying the Winterbane Gauntlet card for my Xmas gift from her. That $40 will be well invested now that we have a means of getting cheap Megas. ^_^)


[To be continued...]

Christmas Postage

Merry Christmas everyone! No, Sierra is NOT dead. It's just... how can I say this... ?

Yeah, I have two MMOs on my computer now - Maplestory has hooked me thanks to ToyDualer and his own Maple videos and livestreams. BLAME HIM. :(

Of course, it's hard to be on Maple 24/7 because the server constantly crashes or has to undergo an ungodly long update, so I will be returning to Wiz101 before New Years - I still have to get Sierra and her friends through Azteca and Khrys! I am buying some game cards to renew the game time for Grace(whose account expired on the 16th of December) and I am hoping my sister will give me a card for Sierra's account. In the meantime, I do plan on saving up some money to get the Evergreen Bundle for Christina's account so one of her pen pals can start mastering Gardening, since the Botanical Gardens are similar to the Red Barn Farm.

For 2015, since things are going to change with me getting a better job and working to get to an apartment and start paying bills - Dad's putting his foot down and decided that the program I am in is doing NOTHING to help me become independent - I will have to work on a schedule for free time since I will be getting new stuff come Christmas Day(and tomorrow - my parents are doing the Early Xmas for my sister, Ruth, who is leaving on Christmas Eve for a trip); I got Pokemon Omega Ruby and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 as a birthday gift and thus I want to try to enjoy those as well. I don't live and breathe MMOs. So here is a low-down of what I plan on doing to finish this blog...

Yes, this blog will shut down once I finally get through with Morganthe and hopefully the most lucrative of the new instances, Castle Darkmoor(which my first Exalted failed to get through because the Spirit of Darkmoor did some-- eh, TMI FTL, not going to go there -- and destroyed her) will be the last set of posts in this blog. Yes, there is Third Arc speculated, but even if new worlds come out, I won't be blogging them here. This blog needs to be put to rest for new projects. (Like a Maplestory story blog...) But for now, here is what to expect in the future:

(1) First, a summary of Barkingham Palace. I already took a couple of screenshots - Grace's account has purchased Regent's Square so Grace can still enter Marleybone, just not explore it fully while in free-to-play mode.

(2) Next, we start Azteca! Expect it to start next week because I have to renew Grace's account so she can get through Barkingham Palace.

(3) Expect to read about Christina's Bogus Adventure in Zigazag sometime during the Azteca adventures. I have already gotten her through Lower Zigazag(with help) and just need to get her through the House of Scales.

(4) Azteca will likely take all January if I am lucky due to the huge difficulty spike. Ethan won't be joining them... I have a confession to make, I plan on phasing out Ethan Jadeshade, Sierra's "boyfriend." I created him because I thought I needed a healer, but running FOUR accounts at once is bad for my fingers - it's hard to switch to each window and select the commands. He'll stick around as a side-character but adventure on his own or with groups from now on. :(

Anyways, if I am lucky, I'll start Khrysalis late January... and then the pain starts. My plan is to have Shadow Morganthe defeated before March 1st, because if the Third Arc happen in spring, Test Realm will spring up in March so I need to get someone to the Shadow Palace before then!

Anyways, enjoy your holidays and I'll give an update after Christmas Day. Cheers! ^_^

Keep of Ganelon (Avalon Finale)

(Yeah, I'm no longer original with the titles... Anyways, while Maplestory is down for three hours because of a bug preventing anyone from playing it from the launcher, I have time to update this. My birthday is in three days, so here is a anti-birthday gift from me! Enjoy the world finale! ^_^)

 I looked at each of my friends and smiled. "I'm back."

"I knew you'd succeed," said Ethan, kissing my cheek. "We are unstoppable."

"Ooooh, get a room you two," giggled Christina.

Grace coughed. "If we're done with the foolery, Mma... are you ready to fight?"

I nodded. "For some reason, being in the body of Gamma the owl made me strong enough to withstand the fights. Anyways, let's go talk to the Lady. We have to end this."

The Lady of the Lake did NOT piddle around - she got straight to the point. "In the main hall is the Stone which King Artorius drew the Sword of Kings long ago under Merle's watchful eye. Meet me in the courtyard of the Keep of Ganelon and we will talk more there."

 I went to the base of the stairs. "Speech! Speech!" hollered Christina.

I nodded. I knew we needed a pep rally before we risked our lives against the worst dragon ever in the Spiral, the Pendragon.

"This will... be our toughest battle yet," I said. "I won't mince words - there is a chance we may die. But if you are all willing... we will win. We will bring Avalon from the darkness."

"Woo!" Christina yodeled, pumping her fist.

"We will follow you to the end of death, my darling," said Ethan.

"Yes," said Grace. "We must rescue Rra Artorius."

No more talk, the time to act was NOW. We mounted up and rode to the Castle Avalon. (Actually, it was far easier to just warp to Caliburn and use the Caer Lyon Portal to get there.)
 

As soon as we entered the Outer Yard, we saw CHAOS. The Knights of the Silver Rose were viciously repelling the Horned Ones, subduing the Horned Brockets with their blades and shields. Ever Sir Robin did a chicken dance to taunt the deer knights into a rage and getting sniped by other knights. Queen Gwendolyn was calling orders and repelling attacks to her personage, while Sister Constance led a bunch of fairies from the Weirwood to distract the Horned Ones while fire arrows and leprechaun magic rained down on the enemy.

"This is a cool battle," said Christina. "But the Pendragon will note that."

"This is only a diversion," said the Lady. "I gave the signal when you left to the Knights and they created a battle that will be sung by epic bards... but the true heroes are you, the newest Knights."

I nodded. "Let's not let them down then, in we go!" (And yes, I totally made that whole battle scene up, nobody is there. :p)

I had a feeling that the Pendragon wasn't stupid enough to have ALL his evil knights fight the Order - after all, King Artorius was a military genius. The Lancers were surrounding the rock which had the Sword of Kings stuck in it. We would have to kill them all to get to it.

Even though Ethan was prisming the lot to Forest Lord them, I killed the Lancers in a more... gross way. 6_^ (You have to fight four of these guys to advance - they are stronger Horned Brockets with the same School.)

I touched the hilt of the Sword... should I? I gripped it and gave it a sharp tug. It didn't budge.

"I can't get it out," I said.

Grace and Ethan helped me tug on the sword, straining our muscles, but it was no good. The Sword of Kings remained in the stone.

"Oh for Bartleby's left eye!" groaned Christina, walking up to us and grabbing the sword. "How hard can it be to pull out..."

 She yanked it out and we were thrown back in shock.

"What?" asked Christina.

"You... just pulled out the Sword of Kings!" I exclaimed. "Do you know that King Artorius did so and became the ruler of this world?!"

Christina's jaw dropped as she saw the blade in her hands. "I... I am not wor---"

"We can argue all day, Mma," interrupted Grace. She placed a hand on Christina's shoulder. "But every minute is precious. We will make Morganthe pay for humiliating you in Mirror Lake and hurting my world. Let it drop."

Christina dropped the sword.

"Not THAT," I groaned.

Christina slowly picked it up. "I'm not going to be queen, am I?"

"You are a noble knight," said Ethan. "And the hero who will save King Artorius from his curse. The Sword has given you approval when it denied it to us. It feels you are the most worthy."

Christina the tears from her eyes. "Thanks guys, let's kick butt!"

"An... interesting phrase," said a voice.

We bowed to the Lady of the Lake.

"Go upstairs and defeat the Horned Knights, then you can enter the throne room and face the Pendragon," said the Lady. "Good luck, noble knights."

"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!" screamed Christina, running up the stairs. I sighed and shook my head a bit. (When you defeat the Hart Lancers, they all vanish so you won't fight any more mobs on that floor. Once someone pulls the Sword of Kings, everyone who is on this quest gets a Sword of Kings, which gives a power pip[like all weapons of this level], increases Armor Pierce by 2-4% and Critical Rating by 10-15% for your school and gives several wand strikes of your school, so Christina will keep the Sword but the others won't use it.)

Despite having the magic sword of Artorius, Christina still needed a little help from Ra. ;)

(Stronger Fire Deer Knights whose name I forgot. Grace nuked them with Tempest. Like the Hart Lancers, these guys disappear when you defeat four of them.)

 

The great doors to the Throne Room opened and we saw a glimpse of the might Pendragon. We huddled. "Okay, I have a plan." We went over stuff and then strolled into the throne room.

He saw the blade Christina wielded. "Is that the Sword of Kings? Never in this age did I think that it would be raised again. Come, let me test it against my razor fangs!"

"Your Highness," I said softly. "I know it's you, King Artorius, and I know what Morganthe---"

"I think he's not interested in talking," groaned Ethan as the Pendragon unleashed dragonfire upon us.

 He tried to heal me but a dispel stopped him cold. "This guy is powerful, watch out!" he said. Just then, the Sword of Kings replaced our weapons. It was like it wanted us to win!

(Pendragon has two gimmicks he uses instantly after you select the first turn commands - he casts a priority Mass Entangle on everyone who is in battle and then casts a Fire Dragon... and the Damage over Time tick DOES NOT WEAR OFF FOR THE ENTIRE BATTLE unless you Triage it off, or...)

"Taste your own medicine!" I shouted as I cast a spell I didn't think was useful. (Use Shift. If everyone casts Shift - unlikely as there are no Shift Treasure Cards - he'll get hit with four DoT ticks that will cherry tap him. The big problem is that means you can't Feint or Hex him.)

 We unleashed our strongest spells - Gnomes, Basilisk, and even Tempest, but he was still standing. I didn't want to do too much damage...

"Banzai!" shouted Christina. "Time to finish him off!"

"NO!" I cried.

Christina hurled the Sword of Kings, which boomeranged around and gashed the dragon's head with a huge cut. I cringed. (If anyone attacks with the Sword of Kings' normal attack, Pendragon will use a priority natural attack ON HIMSELF. Also, whenever someone casts an attack spell while he Sword of Kings is equipped, a weak ice wand attack will hit Pendragon. He is Death and has 13400 HP, so be aware of that.)

The dragon screeched and his horns fell off, turning into what I knew was the Horned Crown as I had seen in it in the tapestry. The dragon transformed into a familiar face... King Artorius!

"I wasn't gonna kill him, I'm not a regidical maniac," laughed Christina.

"How did you know..." I asked.

"The Sword knew where to strike," said Christina. She knelt before the king. "Are you okay, Arty?"

I sighed. Someone had failed to teach this girl manners.

"Thanks," muttered Christina.

"It is nice to see Avalon again with these eyes," groaned King Artorius. "I fear... this is my final hour."

"No!" said Christina. "I am NOT failing again." She got up. "Ethan, do a miracle! You're a blasted Life Wizard, for the Spiral's heart!"

Ethan sighed, knelt before the wounded King, and did a diagnosis. He got up and shook his head. "If I had been trained by the late Sylvia Drake, maybe... but the curse completely destroyed his muscles and us beating him up as a dragon didn't help."

"Yes," said THAT voice.

"The curse is fatal," she said.

"We have to do something!" I cried. "If he dies..."

"There is a way," said the Lady.

I nodded.

"There are two great wyrms which feast on the roots of the World Tree," said the Lady. "Steal their venom and you can concoct a potion to rescue King Artorius. But do not dally, I can keep him stable but only for so long."

"You should stay here and keep King Artorious healthy," I told Ethan.

"I won't be much help to the Lady," sighed Ethan. "Besides, we're a team. And I can concoct the potion, but you? I don't know."

I grinned. I knew he was worried about me. "Okay, but keep us alive! We can't save the King from his own death if we die ourselves."

"The Sword of Kings will aid us too!" said Christina.

We entered and saw the dragons which I recalled seeing from before. I shuddered... now we had to defeat them. I took a deep breath. "Let's go."

 The battle was very dangerous and I nearly screamed several times when Ethan got hit...

 But he got up and healed us all up. (The Black Wyrm is Myth and the White Wyrm is Ice... but both have only 12500 HP and have no gimmicks so don't get scared.)

 

Grace took out the Black Wyrm with her sea dragon...

 

And Medusa came to exact defeat on the White Wyrm. Once they collapsed, we extracted venome from them both. Ethan began mixing them together with muddled roots of Mother Oak.

"We did it, we did it!" chanted Christina as she did a jig. (Oppa dance. ^_^)

"Okay, that's enough," I scolded. "We have to get out of here before those dragons heal and ambush us. Ethan, you done?"

"Yep, this should work, I used some herbs Madame Wu gave me," said Ethan. "Let's get up!"

Ethan quickly administered the treatment to the regent.

"Is he..." I began to say.

"He's breathing normally," said Ethan. "He'll be fine, just needs a few days of good hard rest."

"Woooo!" screamed Christina as the leonine king rose up and smiled.

We bowed deeply to him. "Your Highness!" We followed him out of the throne room...

And found the Knights and Queen. We gasped.

"The Horned Ones fled as soon as the Pendragon was defeated and the Horned Crown destroyed," said Queen Gwendolyn. "We easily recovered the Castle."

 

 

The group praised our deeds.


Christina took the sword in her hands and held it up. "Your Highness, this sword belongs to you. I only wielded it briefly to save you and I will return it now." We were a bit shocked by this.

The King chuckled and pushed it back. "No, the Sword of Kings belongs to you now, Wizard. When I pulled that blade from the rock years ago, it was under the council of Merle Ambrose, which I heard while you were fighting those wyrms for my cure is your mentor. The Sword has a mind of its own and has chosen you to be its new owner, to protect the Spiral from that foul arachnid, Morganthe. You will need all the aid you can get to deal with that witch, so I bequeath the blade to you."

Christina blushed. "Your majesty, I... am honored. I will try to keep it by my side always." She sheathed the blade.

"Now come, let us celebrate this victory," said the King. "Stay the night and rest for the battles ahead. You will need to be ready for your future adventures."

"Well, if it's from you, your Majesty... how we can refuse?" I laughed.

We spent the night and enjoyed a lot of good food and drink, then slept in soft beds. If there was one thing the people of Avalon are great at, it's having parties! ^_^ (More story content, nothing happens like that.)

"Thanks," I said. "But we need to return to our Headmaster and tell him his home is healing."

"Do so, Merle Ambrose will be proud to have trained you to become so powerful and do what he could not," said the Lady, smiling. "I will return to the Dolorous Tower, which I have made into my home now. If there is anything you need from me, please let me know."

"We will," I said.

"I'm going to warp back to WC to talk to the Headmaster," I said. "You three should take a nice long rest."

"What about Morgie?" asked Christina. "I didn't see any of her icky lackies. I mean, she should have found us out, seeking this thing..." She waved the Sword of Kings. "And tried to kill us before..."

"Let's not think about it," said Grace. "We will deal with the Dark Lady soon enough. For now, we should enjoy our repose and get strong for later..

The others warped away but I got on my pogo and hopped leisurely through the recovering world to Caliburn, took the Spiral Gate and hopped back to Wizard City to Ambrose's office.He was ushering out one more student as I arrived.

"Ah, Sierra!" he said. "I see you have returned."

"The others are okay, I sent them home," I said. I told my story of chasing the Sword down and Christina owning it and everything else. I was verbally tired when I was finished - I am not a good summarizer, I tend to tell everything.

"I'm glad you're happy," I said. "I know that Avalon was where you were born, and to think Morganthe did so much damage..."

"You have seen the visions of the past in that ghostly realm in the Other Side," sighed Ambrose, shaking his head. "Yes, it is true, Morganthe was a terrible apprentice, always trying to learn dark magic. Like Malistaire, she had a lust for power... but unlike him, she had nothing she loved more. I wish to keep this a secret but... she discovered Astral Magic in Ravenwood and tried to learn it. Malistaire and his wife stopped her and saved Ravenwood from becoming destroyed by such power. The fact that she stole Astral Magic from Celestia... this doesn't bode well!"

"I didn't know all that," I said.

"I had hoped getting her away from Avalon would subdue her desires but I was sadly mistaken..." sighed Ambrose. "And when the people of Zafaria called upon us to save them and I found her behind it all, I had no choice but to punish her and seal her Deck... which she recovered. At least now we have a weapon to protect the Spiral! I will use all my powers to divine her dark plans before another world is harmed!"

He put a hand on my shoulder.

"You have given the others a respite, Sierra," he said. "Go rest yourself. I will contact you when I have finished my divinations."

I nodded and left...

But I won't ever forget the adventures I had with my friends in Avalon!

TWO WEEKS LATER...

CYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! :(

[To be continued---?]