Chapter 2 The Imminent Collapse

Now it came to pass that Ronzak the Sorcerer had grown very strong in the dark powers. He was certain he would be able to overpower all opposing forces and enslave all of mankind to his service. He began to discreetly envelope all the remote villages under his spell and force all able bodied males into his army.

As his army of conscripts grew, he moved ever closer to Freetown, the seat of government for the entire known world. So tactful was his progress that he was virtually at the outskirts of town before the alarm was raised.

The army of Freetown mainly consisted of citizen reserves who were allowed to remain at home with the agreement that they could be called to action at any time. Only a small garrison protected Freetown and even smaller groupings of regular soldiers were dispersed throughout the world as advance guards.

Nobody was aware that Ronzak had taken most of the reserves and advance guards into his own army, so when the threat was finally apparent, there were only a few defenders available.

There ensued many long and heated debates within the government about how to respond to the inevitable ultimatum from Ronzak. The sides were almost even, half the government advocating surrender and servitude to Ronzak’s will while the other half vowed to fight to the death if necessary to preserve freedom.

Being a truly democratic society in which all major decisions required approval of the citizens by plebiscite, all who remained free of Ronzak’s enslavement were called for the vote.

Ronzig and his father Ronik were unaware of these proceedings as they were in the far Northern regions of the world, beyond any map of the time. They had been on the ice fields for several years learning a new magic called Blue Ice which promised to convert the desert regions of the world into oases of abundance.

Ronzig was the first to perceive the turmoil back in the know world as his superior telepathic abilities began picking up fragments of distressing thought waves. He called his father to him saying, “There is trouble.”

The two called up a cyclone and rode it a most speed back towards Freetown. All along the journey home, they saw devastation. The land was blackened as if by fire and nothing grew anywhere. Women and children in village after village were on the edge of starvation and no men were to be seen.

Ronik told Ronzig to remain in the wasted lands and work to restore life to the land, for it was immediately apparent that sorcery was at the root of the tragic situation. Ronik continued to Freetown to help with the defense of the world.

Upon arrival in Freetown, Ronik was immediately aware that the situation was far graver than he could have imagined possible. He feared the cause was hopeless and to fight would mean death to all. At the poling area he gave a short speech to all, revealing his expectation that death would almost certainly be the outcome of resistance to Ronzak’s forces and advise everyone threat in his opinion, death was preferable to slavery. So powerful was his argument that the decision to fight to the death was almost unanimous and so, the fate of the brave defenders was sealed.

The following day, hostilities escalated into all our war. The battle raged for three full weeks before the defenders were driven behind the walls of Freetown and a siege began. The battle was costly to the extreme and less than one third of the defenders remained among the living by then. Because of the reduced numbers of defenders, the siege was a prolonged one. If more had lived starvation would have come early to Freetown, but come it did.

The defenders decided that a final battle to the end was preferable to a slow death by starvation and resolved to make one final charge into the enemy’s ranks.

Meanwhile, Ronzig had been working to restore vitality to the outer regions. He was moving throughout the territories bringing the land back to life and forming an army of women and children to help defend the land when he met a young woman who said her name was Spirited Away. She was, like all the others he met, dirty and hungry and without hope. Spirited Away revealed her secret to Ronzig in a tale that is another story; she was a fairy from the far Eastern land of Turquoise and she had been deprived of her magical powers when she was caught up in one of Ronzak’s spells.

When Ronzig cast a cleansing spell on her, Spirited Away’s true form was revealed and her magic was restored.

Ronzig immediately made her his General over the army of women and children and felt the rejuvenating strength that comes with having an ally to join in the struggle with him. They finished gathering the new army and were preparing for the long march to Freetown when Ronzig was struck with a fiery slice of excruciating pain across his chest.

At the very moment that Ronzig felt that mortal pain, the battle was drawing to a devastating conclusion at Freetown. The defenders had ridden out to meet the opposing force and had fought bravely, but superior numbers were prevailing. There were no more than one hundred defenders remaining to battle against a force of ten thousand and yet they refused to yield.

Ronik had led the charge and fought his way through the throngs of enemy soldiers until he finally came face to face with his son. He commanded Ronzak to withdraw and end his conquest, the young sorcerer merely laughed and sent an electric charge at his father. Ronik parried the first few attacks and retaliated with ice storms which Ronzak easily shielded himself from. Finally the sorcerer’s superior magic prevailed and Ronik was severed across the chest by one of Ronzak’s electric charges and fell lifeless to the ground.

Ronzig, having felt the pain of the death blow, left Spirited Away to the task of leading the army to the battle and he summoned his cyclone and made haste to Freetown in hopes of saving his father.

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Chapter 1 The Legend of Ronzig

Long, long ago, long before the age of science, long before the Ice Age even, there was an age which humans have pushed from their memory. This was the age of magic, when sorcerers and wizards fought great battles in search of an outcome to the conflict between good and evil. Sorcerers sought to arm themselves with the powers of evil in order to gain control of the world and wizards sought to use the powers of good to defeat these sorcerers and keep the world free.

As the world explored the great secrets of science, foolish people decided that magic could not exist in this world because it was not scientific. Only a few of the great wizards of the past understood how very wrong this line of thinking was, for magic, more than any other discipline was a precise, scientific branch of learning. The problem was amplified by the fact that it took hundreds of years of dedicated study for a novice to even begin to master this craft. Only the brightest students reached the level of learning necessary to overcome death and complete their studies. The reason that the Gods designed the science of magic to be so difficult to master is quite simple really. If more than a few were allowed to master the powers of magic, the conflict between the two branches would threaten to rip apart the very fabric of time and space. There was another limiting factor involved, for each master magician could only take his first born son as an apprentice and there was no other way to learn the secrets of magic except by apprenticeship to a master.

Now Ronzig was the first born son of Ronik, the most powerful wizard of that time and as first born, it was his destiny to become Ronik’s apprentice. However, thirteen minutes after Ronzig was born, he was followed into this world by his twin brother Ronzak. As the twins reached the age of apprenticeship, Ronzig began his studies with his father and Ronzak was left to seek other, less challenging disciplines.

As is often the case with siblings, the younger brother was more intelligent than his older brother, but was lacking in the elder brother’s wisdom. Ronzak could not tolerate being second to his less intelligent brother and he left the family home to roam the world.

Ronik’s arch rival, Sonod the Sorcerer was quick to recognize an opportunity to gain the upper hand over Ronik. Sonod had no sons, so he was free to take any apprentice he chose, and he chose Ronzak who already carried the magic gene in his body. This set into motion, the events which led to the fiercest battle of magic which the world has ever known, The Battle of the Twins.

By the time the twin brothers had reached the age of 313, they had far surpassed the knowledge and skills of their mentors. They were the two most powerful magicians ever to walk the face of the Earth.

Ronzig the Wizard and Ronzak the Sorcerer were destined to clash, for one had embraced the powers of the Gods and the other had embraced the powers of the demons.

The legend of this battle is another story for another time. It is enough for the purpose of this tale to relate the fact that the conflagration lasted over 500 years and so disrupted the balance of the universe that it triggered an ice age on the planet Earth.

Ronzig was near defeat as the tide of battle had swung to favour Ronzak, but in his wisdom, he conjured up a box with the last of his powers. This was no ordinary box, for it was set to capture all dark magic. Its workings followed the principles of a black hole. The more Ronzak used his powers to fight the containing box, the stronger the box became, until it had drained Ronzak of all of his magic.

Unwilling to destroy his twin brother, Ronzig chose to lock Ronzak’s magic into the box. Ronzak laughs and says he will pick the lock and retrieve his magic. Ronzig knows that his brother can pick any lock, so he conjures up a combination lock, into which he secures the magic. Ronzak laughs and says he will have no trouble devising the combination. Once he has his magic restored, he will meet Ronzig in a final conflict. As Ronzig walks away, he calls to his brother, telling him that the lock is no ordinary one. It has been designed to set its own combination to the number of characters determined by Ronzig. The final genius of the container is that the number of characters in the combination is set to infinity. The lock will never finish generating its combination and cannot be opened unless the complete combination is entered.

And this was the final outcome of a millennium long battle between the two branches of magic. The power of dark magic was defeated and locked away for all eternity, but without the force of dark magic to counter; there was no longer any need for Ronzig’s great magic. Since people no longer were witness to the powers of magic being practiced, they soon forgot that magic was very real and very powerful and they began to believe that the legends of sorcerers and wizards were only myths.

Although Ronzak no longer has his magic powers he is still a very strong force in the world. He has changed his name to BILL and he guards the GATES of Hell.

Ronzig, the last of the great wizards, uses his magic in less dramatic ways than he did in the old days. Now Ronzig the Wizard conjures up amazing digital photoArt creations with his magic mouse.

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Ronzig