CHAPTER X
RISOTTO

SOUNDTRACK- None
        The night was calm. The massive windmills had stopped, and the city inside the castle walls was silent. Everyone of Revenant had their own room to sleep in, grand in beauty and size. Janus had his window open, the thin white drapes gently flowing in the soft breeze. A strange noise, almost like a muffled liquid, faded from the silence. As if something was entering the world from thin air.
        This woke Janus; he instantly jumped from his bed and gazed out his window. He could not believe what he saw. He quickly called for the others. They dashed into his room as soon as they could, gathering around his window.
SOUNDTRACK- Twilight Glimmer
        “No!” Abant had a gut feeling that was so strong, it gave him stomach cramps. He saw a lone figure walking through the streets, floating like a ghost with his dark cape brushing the ground. Suddenly, Abant could make out the metal mask and armor that the figure had welded onto his flesh. His heart nearly stopped and his blood nearly crystallized. “It is the day Vako feared most, a prophecy which made no sense.”
        “What?” Janus wondered.
        “Another advent of Sa’gaht.”
        The others rushed to the window. “I thought he was dead...” Canen wondered.
        “Apparently not,” Fox said, his voice shaking in fear.
        The cloaked figure waved his metallic-gloved hand in the air. A cloud of blackness appeared where his hand waved. As it dissipated, a collapsible rod was revealed from the shadows.

       Sa’gaht immediately clenched onto it with his right fist before it would begin to fall to the ground. He held it out in front of him. He moved his metallic thumb to a black button on the rod. When the dark mage pressed it, the rod shot out from him, quickly extending twenty-one feet in length! The stretch of the rod did not matter to Sa’gaht’s superb muscles covered in his polished titanium-plastic alloy.
        Immediately after the rod extended, fourty-two small and curved charcoal-colored blades flung out all along the weapon. Some of these little blades were bent and damaged from Sa’gaht’s countless battles. Out of all of his battles, the blade that claimed the most lives was yet to be revealed. Atop of the huge metal pole, out flung an identical blade to the smaller ones, but this one was seven feet in length!
        Abant was flooded with terrified emotion, as if this man had killed him once before. But now Abant’s fear was amplified, for Sa’gaht (thought to be long since dead) was back. Abant nearly choked on his own fear, “His weapon...beware of it! Sa’gaht’s weapon is the legendary Onyx-Scythe: the Risotto!”
        “More like the weapon of the Grim Reaper times five billion!” Audrey shouted in terrifying amazement.
        “Get dressed and get your weapons!” Canen shouted as he rushed to the door. “We’ve got a city to protect!”
        Sa’gaht was a mage who had mastered shadow magic so perfectly, that he knew how to use it to mimic other magics. After igniting the dozens of  blades, on the Risotto, to the abysmal blackness his magic possessed, Sa’gaht swung his massive scythe at the huts and windmills of the city. Whatever the black-glowing blade touched would burst into flames- huge, powerful, and deadly explosions that required but a simple touch of the Risotto. Sa’gaht’s magic ability was incredible, no- incomprehensible!
        The blue and black robed Zetan warriors poured out of the castle. With their silver blades drawn and fire in their soul, the warriors rushed at Sa’gaht, who was destroying their beloved city. Canen, Abant, Janus, Audrey, Fox, and Cevo all bolted behind the huge crowd of soldiers. Abant through out his arms, bracing everyone back. He saw what was about to happen.
 Sa’gaht spun the huge Risotto in his arms like a horizontal propeller, slicing through the guts of all of the rushing soldiers. Ten feet from the lone mage of darkness, fifty men watched their rubbery intestines fall from their bodies. The members of Revenant stared at the massacre, and embraced the carnage to come.
        “I wish to slaughter the Prodigy of Magic,” Sa’gaht said in his ghoulishly deep voice. With the press of a button, the Risotto collapsed to a much shorter length. It stood a good fifteen feet or so.
        Sa’gaht opened his palm and pointed it at Janus. The young mage found that his body was suddenly jerked into the air and flying towards Sa’gaht’s metallic palm like two attracting magnets. The dark warrior wrapped his huge metal-covered hand around Janus’s head and began to squeeze. Blood seeped from the young mage’s nose just as he swung his yellow-glowing Onyx-Blade upwards. The thrust knocked Sa’gaht’s hold off of Janus’s head.
        The blade itself sliced into the gauntlets that had him in a death-hold, becoming wedged into the skin-like metal that was nearly invincible. Janus roared as he released a surge of electricity into the armor of the dark warrior. The electricity had traveled all throughout Sa’gaht’s body, carried by his concealment! Sa’gaht recoiled with a deep bellow, and stumbled backwards.
        Half a second later, Janus noticed the huge Risotto blade flitting at him. Canen yanked on Janus’s collar, pulling him back. As Janus was horizontally airborne by Canen’s mighty tug, he watched the Risotto sail over him in what seemed like an eternity. There was less than an inch from the blade and the young mage’s skull. Landing on his back, he quickly kicked upward, thrusting his body to a standing position.
        Sa’gaht extended his arm, palm open, at Canen. The leader of Revenant found himself shoved backwards several feet from Janus, Sa’gaht casting an invisible force at him. He really felt like his foe had slammed a bag of concrete bricks into his chest. The dark mage violently pushed Canen out of the battle with his mind. Canen crashed onto the brick streets, shattering them upon his impact. He spit blood.
        The dark warrior instantly cast a semi-transparent dome of shadow over Janus and himself. The diameter of the dome was a good thirty feet, enough battleground for Sa’gaht to destroy Janus. Abant tried to dash through it, but he quickly discovered that the dome would electrocute upon contact. “You’ll never take me!” Janus shouted, holding up his Onyx-Blade that shimmered yellow.
        All Sa’gaht did in return was give a deep, roaring cackle. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die, Prodigy of Magic!” He swung the Risotto low, standing ten feet from Janus. Fortunately, the young mage jumped in time before it passed where his shins would have been. While airborne, he summoned a bolt of lightning. From the cloudless sky one came, but only struck the shadow dome, the pinnacle fifty feet above them.
        When Janus landed, Sa’gaht swung his scythe high. Janus enabled his Time magic to slow things down, but he had to question if he was actually using it or not. Sa’gaht’s moves were just too fast.
        Janus managed to throw his upper-body backwards, while maintaining his stance with his legs. The Risotto soared over him with such smooth aerodynamics. After pulling himself up, Janus took his Onyx-Blade and pointed it horizontally at Sa’gaht. A bolt of lighting shot from his glowing-yellow weapon and struck the dark mage in the chest. He flew backwards and hit his shadow dome, again being electrocuted. Sa’gaht picked himself up and bellowed pain as smoke flowed from his armor.
        The Risotto swung more rapidly at Janus, but the Time magic the young mage possessed allowed him to bring up his Onyx-Blade to block the attacks. He swung his golden blade at the oncoming pole of glowing black knives. The pole smashed into his sword, forcing it to violently rebound. This defensive move made Janus bounce back as the two weapons clashed with great intensity.
        Sa’gaht had enough. His smoking body bolted at Janus faster than the young mage could compensate. The armor of Sa’gaht smoked so much, that his rapid movements would be left behind as gray images of himself. Confusion clouded Janus’s mind, as there seemed to be twelve different Sa’gahts attacking him at once!!!!
        The young mage slowed down time as well as he could, but Sa’gaht was still unbelievably fast, even in fire-time! Janus blocked as many attacks as he could with his Onyx-Blade, but he began to realize Canen was wrong. Janus wasn’t ready...
        While able to escape the large blade of the Risotto, Janus couldn’t help surrendering to the smaller ones. Sa’gaht’s clever and quick movements with his weapon caught Janus by surprise many times. The pole’s knives would stab into his back as it swooped from behind him, slamming into his flesh. Then the pole instantly spun around Sa’gaht and meet Janus in the gut, driving the knives into his intestines. His body was being torn to shreds as blood seeped rapidly from every deep gash that the Risotto put on him. Before long, Janus’s body was numb, and he lost control of his hold on fire-time.
        Janus didn’t need to use his Time magic to watch the world slow down- his pain caused him to become more sluggish by each passing moment and each slashing attack. He began to black-out, but still put-up an incredible fight. The flames of the huts around him burned so fiercely, they began to hypnotize the young mage. Then he turned to see all of Revenant staring at him with wide eyes and jaws dropped. They all saw what was coming, and so did Janus himself.
        By then, Janus’s suit was stained and soaked in his own dark blood. In fact, he didn’t even look like himself anymore; the gashes all over his body and face carved him to better be a rag-doll torn apart by vicious dogs, than a human. The Risotto came rushing at him one last time. The unbelievably sharp and seven-foot long blade sliced through his neck, decapitating him!!!!
        Janus’s body tensed, as his Onyx-Blade fell from his hands. The glow faded instantly before it clanked onto the brick street. After it landed, the young mage dropped to his knees, then toppled over. But this was, of course, excluding his head. Janus watched his body fall to the ground, deep red flowing from his open neck, as his cleaved head flew through the air.
        The shadow dome disappeared just as Janus’s head fell to the feet of Abant. Half of the members of Revenant were too horrified to do anything. Canen looked up from the image of the head of Janus in terror and disbelief. “It’s not possible...it’s not...” Canen’s eyes lit up in rage. “...YOU BASTARD!!!” he shouted with such fierce intensity at Sa’gaht.
        Suddenly, the dark mage jumped up in the air and flew off, disappearing into the night sky. Sa’gaht left a burning city, fifty dead soldiers, and an extremely horrifying twist in fate all behind him. “We are lost,” Abant said, falling to his knees. He stared down at the head of Janus, but noticed something odd. The strange noise had returned once again, that noise that woke Janus. The remains of the dead Prodigy of Magic bubbled out of existence, including the clothing, armor, sword, and splattered blood.