CHAPTER 1 - QUIET RELAXATIONS
Blayne stared over the vast ocean of death before him. He couldn't believe had happened in the last six months. It made his fight with Bolas seem like a minor dispute. Plane after Plane, he couldn't find anything or anyone that could help him. He had tried fighting it himself, but it was just too big. The Phyrexian plague spread too damn fast. He was but one Planeswalker against an army. His dear love had tried to tell him how wrong he was, but he fought tooth and nail to keep her out of the line of fire.
No one was rightly sure about how it got started. Being the Phyrexians, they could've started with something as little as a single spore. Blayne couldn't help but wonder if such a thing could've come back with him from his adventures. He had been assured many times by many different people that it was impossible unless he had visited a world already infested, but it still bothered him.
Whatever the initial cause, it had started after the battle between Blayne and Bolas. Not as some big explosion or eruption of Phyrexians, but as a simple spore down in the sewers that began to grow. First it infected a rat, then that one infected another. It spread through the underground slowly but surely. Eventually, after months of rabid and disfigured rodents, the first human was infected. It wasn't taken seriously at first, thought to just be a madman. But it grew worse and worse as time passed. The city was soon under quarantine, but that didn't stop it. It spread inexorably outward.
After much effort from Blayne and his friends, every country in the world united against the Phyrexians and, even with all that might, it was completely pointless. Each that fell in battle against the Phyrexians was another soldier for the Phyrexians and each Phyrexian that fell was another release of spores and pathogens. Even nature turned against them as the creatures the Phyrexians killed became vicious monsters for them. Rabid, plague-bearing rats and squirrels swarmed the cities and decaying, Phyrexian bears and wolves hunted everything in the wild. Billions died in the struggle. Many sought forgiveness with various deities and many more committed suicide in hopes of escaping the horrors of the world. Little did those few know that they had just thrown themselves into hell, the hell of being resurrected as a Phyrexian.
For all the good his fighting did, the hell lay around him. One of his loved ones had suffered a mortal wound, the world was slowly dying and here he stood atop the rebuilt Empire State Building. The streets around him were covered in a black ichor on which the Phyrexians lived. The buildings looked like they were sinking because of the way the Phyrexian plague melted the brick and steel. Around him were hundreds of Phyrexian horrors, flying on wings of black death.
Taking a deep breath, he prepared for the greatest spell he would ever cast. Not only would it outshine anything he had ever attempted in the past, but it would likely end his life. It didn't matter though. If it worked like he wanted, and how he had crafted it, the Phyrexian plague would be obliterated completely and the Earth would be safe. In one fell swoop, it would cleanse the entire planet of it's sickness.
The five Mox in his possession floated out from the tattered black trench coat he wore, floating around him at his magical beckoning. He spread his eyes and watched the center Mox, a glorious red ruby carved in the shape of a heart. It had been his sister's before this terror had taken over their lives. Alongside it was a gorgeous emerald, a near perfect sapphire, an amazing pearl and the darkest piece of Jet he had ever seen. They began to glow with their respective colors as he drew on their mana. The spell he was readying would absorb every ounce of magic he could muster as well as his entire life force if need be. It was eons old, crafted by the master artificer Urza. Originally been called 'The Legacy Weapon', it was never intended to be used in this manner. It was a spell that modified and changed itself to better it's own success, however it was meant to be used over the course of months or even years. Urza was a man of great intelligence and he had crafted the most unbeatable long-term strategies in the Multiverse, but Blayne couldn't wait that long. He had twisted the spell to his own need and was going to cast it in his own way.
Around him, the Phyrexian demons tried to attack him, but they were stopped by the barrier that surrounded him. He came under the protection of a powerful angelic barrier, one that they could not easily break. It would last long enough for him to finish his spell.
The mana hummed through his body and five colors of magic began to swirl around him. The spell burned in his mind like the brightest sunlight and he looked at the black clouds above him. It had been so long since he had seen the sun of his own plane. Since he had returned with this chance at victory, the Phyrexian plague had darkened the skies and shut out the sun. Earth was a dismal, grey place and that's why he was doing this. So the people of his world could see the sun again.
The spell began to take shape around him, forming into a shimmering beam of a thousand glimmering colors. It drove away the Phyrexians and a gorgeous aurora began to shine above him. The clouds parted from the sheer force of the magic and sunlight shone in a beautiful spire straight down on him. He felt like he was being bathed in divine light, as if a higher power was saying that he had finally won.
*******
Blayne gasped and sat upright. His body was hot and sweaty, his heart pounding wildly.
"Blayne, come on, stop hogging the covers!" Varia grumbled, yanking the blankets off him as she curled up tightly.
"S... Sorry... it was just a nightmare." Blayne mumbled, rubbing his face. He could only remember bits and pieces, but it was horrifying.
"Nightmare? Blayne, are you six?" Varia teased, looking up at him in the dark of their room.
Blayne just sat there quietly, trying to get the images of those twisted and horrid creatures out of his head. The room around them was unfinished and barren. Boxes were stacked to the ceiling. When they had moved in today, they barely had time to get their beds in order before they collapsed out of exhaustion.
"Blayne, are you alright?" Varia asked, putting a hand on his arm. She sat up and scooted over next to him. They were both completely naked, it was just how they slept at home now.
"The nightmare was so real... I can't remember much of it now, it's like a fleeting cloud. It's just broken up and disappeared." Blayne murmured, rubbing his forehead.
"Come on Blayne, back to sleep. We've got to unpack tomorrow." Varia said with uncharacteristic niceness.
They laid down and cuddled together, Blayne's mind slowly easing as he held Varia close. Never in his life had he felt so scared as he had after that dream. What did it mean?
*******
"Blayne, where did you unpack the frying pan?" Robin called from the kitchen.
"I threw it out. You didn't need a deadly weapon like that." Varia laughed as she adjusted the pictures on the wall.
"It's in the cupboard on the end over there near the stove." Blayne sighed, rolling his eyes as he came out of his and Varia's new Bedroom.
Nearly six months now, he and Varia had been living in New York with his sister. Even Varia had loosened up and found ways to enjoy Blayne's world. She loved the New York nightlife at times. Mainly she enjoyed striding the streets with the knowledge that the meanest and biggest muggers stood no chance against her. In recent weeks the paper had been posting about the gigantic drops in night-time street crime.
"Don't start with me Varia, I'm a mage now." Robin smiled, pointing at her.
"Mage~!" Varia scoffed, "You can heal scratches and light a spark. You aren't a mage."
"Robin worked hard to be able to do that. It takes a lot of effort for her, she wasn't born with magical powers." Blayne said before laughing softly, "But Varia is right, your magic is rubbish sis."
Over the last few months he'd been home, he was letting his sister feel mana. He helped feed her tiny trickles of mana and taught her how to use it. She couldn't do much at all, but her affinity was with white, red and blue, similar to Blayne. She could spark small flames in her hand, heal cuts and bruises and even move small things around with her mind. The first time she had made a small flame burn in her hand, she had giggled and bounced for an hour.
"Oh please! I wasn't born with magic like you! That's not a fair comparison." Robin said, pointing at them.
"I wasn't... Oh damn... wait, technically I was. Crud." Blayne sighed, scratching his head.
"Ha ha!" Robin laughed at him.
"You laugh, but no matter what you do, I'll always be better than you." Varia smiled and crossed her arms.
