Ravish Me, Oh Great Wizard King!!!

For weeks, the air about Topaz city had been an uneasy mix of restlessness and complacency. 

The restless faction were the supposed 'war mongers' and the super elites who had insider knowledge about what was supposedly coming down the pipelines.

In an attempt to not panic people needlessly, all they could do was spread the news for everyone to start preparing for major disruptions.  As to the extent of the disruption, nobody truly knew.

For the vast majority of the citizens of Topaz however, they had been hearing all the brouhaha about an impending war for weeks but other than a group of well-dressed black suited mage walking about observing everything, nothing much happened. 

And since mouths had to be fed and life had to continue forward, the normal daily work flow continued without abate. 

Not even the relatively large group of warriors porting in over night did much to dampen the nonchalance of the Topazians.  At most, it was external money coming into the city once the soldiers began spending some of their currency at the local shops.

In short, it was business as usual.

At promptly 8 am, the floral shop opened up.  The dwarven ladies who ran the shop pushed the wheelbarrows out and filled them with buckets of red, pink, and orange Gerbera daisies.

Across the street, the fish monger had just taken in the early morning catch of monk fish and swordfish and halibut and were now gutting and cleaning them for the early morning market.

The red and green Market umbrellas were opened and the sidewalk Crepes Bistro was set up to begin serving customers. 

The bakery's chimney was puffing out smoke as the bakers made the daily quota of baguettes and brioches that the deli next door used to make sandwiches with. 

Inside their sparkling interior were cases filled with eclairs and donuts and puff pastries. 

Trays of the pastries were carried over to the MagiKat Coffee Shop which had been opened since 5 am for the early bird risers and those who had to bring produce and meats to the morning markets.

As soon as the coffee shop door swung open, the smell of freshly roasted coffee permeated through Montclaire Road, lending a rich bass note to the bakery and the bistro. 

Everything looked normal but there were some things that didn't quite feel right. 

For starters, all the children were missing. 

It was summer time so the kids who were normally taking summer vacation were not in town.  Those who stayed in Topaz over the summer were either already in school or had been taken on trips to who-knows-where.

There was also noise that the entirety of Professor Pomfrey's summer Transmutation classes had taken a one day field trip to do some transmutational work.  Where they went, nobody knew.

What was also missing were the windsurfers.  They would normally be yodeling and hooting in mid-air at this time, but the skies were strangely silent. 

There had been gossip from the hair stylist that her two boys had flown with the rest of the windsurfing team the day before to compete at a windsurfing tournament way up in Crystal Academy in the city of Diamond. 

The early morning turned into mid-morning. 

At precisely 10 am, there was a loud blast from a war horn signifying an impending attack.  The Monteceto warriors dressed in the familiar black and gold bodysuits ran through the main thoroughfare.

Since they were Monteceto warriors, nobody cared.  These were familiar men who would normally be out buying the fish from the fish monger and drinking the coffee from the MagiKat. 

From the other end of Montclair Road, the Jaynami warriors in their black and purple bodysuits roared in reciprocation and ran up to meet them in the middle.

They clashed in the middle and swords began to clang together.  Battle cries began to sound everywhere.  The fighting began in earnest.

That was when people began to panic.  Jaynami were also locals who were very familiar to the merchants and the locals, but if they were fighting against the Monteceto warriors, something very bad was happening.

Shops quickly closed. 

The wheelbarrows of Gerbera daisies got pushed out into the street and the colorful flowers were strewn everywhere, getting trampled underfoot. 

The market umbrellas were upended.  Chairs and tables went flying. 

As the fighting escalated, some soldiers began setting fire to certain buildings.  At first it was just a few isolated shop fronts, but within minutes, entire streets were burning. 

The fire quickly blazed through the most densely populated areas of Topaz.  Thousands of people were trapped without any way of leaving their homes. 

Screams of people fighting, people dying, and people burning to death began to reverberate throughout the city. 

At the center of town, the concentration of Jaynami warriors were packed solidly around Montclair Loop encircling the gleaming white pyramid. 

It was do or die here at the base of the pyramid.   

It took the Monteceto warriors and the Mage Elites an hour to fight their way towards Montclaire Loop.  This was when the mages began the real fight. 

They let loose elemental spells of water, ice, sand, and electricity.  From the Jaynami side, there were corresponding mage weapons of fire and ice and every possible combination of demonic warfare. 

The explosions were terrible.  Warriors died in the thousands.  Bodies piled up on top of bodies.

Sadly, the bodies were mostly Monteceto and Jaynami locals.  Of the Mage Elites, there were few casualties. 

At high noon, a high level Mage Elite Necromancer set off several fire demons aimed directly at the school.  The demons blew a wide burning path towards the Topaz Academy of Magikal Arts and exploded upon contact, the hillside that the school was built on. 

Wave after wave of fire balls hit the school until there was nothing left.  The entire academy was completely obliterated. 

Where there once was a Topaz Academy, the hillside held only a large impact crater where the fire demons had spent their last energy surges. 

While the school was burning, four fire balls were also being aimed on each side of the pyramid, straight up at the capstone.

There was a loud thundering roar. 

Four simultaneous balls of fire from four high level thaumaturges flew towards their target at the top of the pyramid. 

There was a moment of silence. 

The crystal capstone absorbed all the energy from the fire demons and began to glow a hot retina-burning brilliant white. 

Five seconds later, it pulsed. 

Once. 

Twice. 

BOOM!!!

The capstone exploded into a million shards of hot burning crystal raining down onto the people below the pyramid. 

The screams of the injured and the dying were drowned out by the roar of the fire that burned everything within the vicinity of the pyramid. 

Smoke poured out everywhere. 

Topaz was sacked. The Academy had been obliterated. 

All of this played out on the scry-visual that was at Erick's Palace in Jade.  Tangerine and Cobalt Osiris were hugging each other with tears in their eyes. 

They had no idea where their twin boys were, or if they even made it out alive.  Lauren was with them, crying as if her heart was breaking.

Watching from another scry-visual deep in the heart of the bamboo forest, Hubert Blackstone poured a shot glass of strong whiskey down his throat as he tried not to look too closely at the dead bodies mounting up. 

His wife, the woman known as Elsa Wiggins aka Kim Asada, stood by him.  Her face was pale and grim with bitter acceptance. 

Her eyes were sightless, but she clearly could see what had just occurred.  There was so much more that was happening which the scry-visuals could not show, but she saw it all.

Pearla Hobart stood in front of the scry-visual glass at Diamond Palace, holding onto Felix Tora Lee Tamein.  She had no idea where his mother the Queen was but she knew exactly where her husband had gone. 

She shut her eyes and prayed hard.  Topaz was her childhood home.  Her family were all living there.  Her husband had journeyed there mere days ago. 

Her oldest brother Borlik Jaynami and his family would never abandon the city in its time of crisis.  They were a warrior family with vows to defend the kingdom and the king.

And her husband would never abandon his troops in times of such calamity. 

With the city destroyed so utterly, there was no escaping the fact that many of her family members would not escape catastrophe. 

She held the baby in her arms and cried.  Baby Felix patted her on the shoulder and babbled a few words of comfort.   

In another part of Topaz, high on a hill where the Topaz Palace stood, a man looked out over the balcony of the open air room.  His blue hair fluttered in the breeze as he looked out onto the horizon.

This was a very special location. The previous king had just plunged to his death the day before from this very picturesque spot. 

Since there was no one left living in this opulent castle, the man decided he could stay here for awhile and enjoy it while it was still enjoyable. 

The scent of a thousand red roses permeated the air.  It helped to quell the smoky smell of burning buildings and burning bodies wafting up from the valley below. 

He did not need scry-visuals to see the city in all its flaming glory.  The palace had a full clear view of the entire valley. 

When the pyramid was attacked, he had to shut his eyes against the heat emanating from the molten glass capstone crystal, but when it exploded, he gave a whoop of joy. 

It was a once-in-a-million lifetime view of hot liquid crystals bursting into a huge chrysanthemum blossom.  The blooming shards caught all the rays of the sunlight and refracted them back to his eyes in a stunning kaleidoscope of moving colors. 

The rainbow effect was mind-blowing.  The destruction was complete.  This far from the center of town, he could not hear individual cries.  All he could hear was the collective roar of the people as they died.

It was beautiful music to his ears. 

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To read more about the destruction of Topaz, please check out my other novel:  The Disabled Mage of Topaz Academy of Magikal Arts. 

Both novels converge on Topaz today with the chapter named 'Explosion'.