A Coven of College Mages

Anthony goes to a college party with a friend, and ends up becoming a mage.

         "You're bullshiting me."
         "Anthony, I'm telling you, you'll have a great time and it'll be over by midnight. That's plenty of time to get home and go to bed and get up for whatever Veterinarian stuff you've got going on tomorrow."
         "Fredrickson, you're saying the party starts at eleven. At night. Tonight." Patrick was unfazed by this information. He, after all, planned this party and knew what he was doing.
         "So?"
         "So?! That's a one hour party, dude! What the hell are we going to do for a single hour?"
         "Oh, come on," Patrick said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Use your imagination, will ya'? Have a little faith! I promise you, you won't regret it."
         "What are you talking about, Fredrickson? I'm not gonna use my imagination, I'm gonna use my common sense and tell you straight up, as a friend, this party is gonna blow. You've never even thrown a party before."
         "Alright, well then as a friend, I expect to see you there to support me in throwing a quote-on-quote one hour party."
         "It is a one hour party, man."
         "To hell with the time, it'll be fun! Look, be there, okay. I want you there."
         Anthony sighed. Patrick Fredrickson had always been an oddball of the human population. There was never a dull moment with him, to his credit, but sometimes he baffled Anthony with how clueless he could be sometimes. That's how it'd been for years now, and it looked like nothing was going to change Patrick Fredrickson's mind about throwing a one hour party.
         "Fine, I'll be there. But, if this blows-"
         "If it blows, I'll never throw a party again. Scout's honor." Patrick held up three fingers to show he meant business. "I don't think I could live with the embarrassment."
         "Oh, and living with the embarrassment of getting your arm stuck in the bleachers because there was a tennis ball that you needed to save stopped you from doing it twice." Anthony held up two fingers for emphasis on his point.
         "Hey, that was different, and you know that! I was that close to grabbing it that second time."
         Anthony chuckled. "Whatever, man. Look, I'll be there, okay? You inviting anyone else?"
         "A few people, just close friends. Gotta minimize the damage in case this doesn't go over well."
         Tell me about it, thought Anthony.
         "Well, I'll see you at eleven, then," Anthony replied.
         "Catch you on the flip side, my man," Patrick said, making his way back behind the counter of the diner. Anthony sat in a booth and deliberated what could possibly be the angle of Patrick's one hour party idea. Was this some elaborate scheme to get a girl or something? If it was just his close friends coming, was he going to come out of the closet or something? Anthony didn't really have a clue, but a good friend helps a brother out. And if Patrick was chill giving him discounted breakfast burritos at the diner, then he'd repay the favor by entertaining his one hour party.
         Anthony finished his ham-egg-and-cheese breakfast burrito, passed Patrick five bucks, and said goodbye, also reaffirming that he was coming tonight. He exited the diner and shielded his eyes from the mid morning sun before hopping into his Toyota Corolla. As he drove back to his apartment, windows down and breeze whipping his hair this way and that, he began to wonder who Patrick's other mutual friends were. Was he talking about Danny and the gang? He hadn't seen him talk to them in about two years. Then again, Anthony wasn't around Patrick 24/7, and for sure wasn't keeping tabs on his personal life, at least not to the level of who his friends were.
         The drive back to Anthony's apartment was quick and he soon made it inside, thankful that he was out of that summer heat. Pierce, his roommate, was busy watching the news on the television.
         "Hey, Anthony."
         "Hey, Pierce."
         "Just come back from schmoozing some discounted b-fast burrito?"
         "Mmhmm, best part of my Saturday," Anthony replied, taking a seat on the couch.
         "Lucky bastard, I tell ya'. Favorite part of my Saturday..." Pierce began speaking in mock anger as he flipped channels, "would be if anything good came on the TV, for Pete's sake." He landed on some old cop drama playing reruns, and instead opted to finally get himself some breakfast. "I swear," Pierce said continuing his tirade, "NatGeoWild used to have way better shows on before Bear Gryls went soft." Pierce rummaged around the refrigerator for anything of substance to eat. He decided on microwaving leftover Chinese food from yesterday. "So what're your plans for today, Doc Himlinn?"
         "Actually, Patrick was going to be throwing a party tonight."
         "Oh yeah? You going?"
         "I'm showing up, yeah."
         "Mmm..." Pierce replied, taking the food out of the microwave. "Is this the same Patrick that got his arm stuck in the bleachers twice?"
         "That's the one," Anthony replied, knowing where the conversation was taking a turn to.
         "Oh, geez, Anthony. Are you still entertaining that clown?" Pierce set his fried rice and orange chicken on the coffee table and took a seat.
         "Pierce, we've been over this before. Patrick is my friend and that's that. I don't care what people think about him, he's a nice guy. And don't call him a clown."
         "Yeah, see? But that's just the thing," Pierce retorted. "He is a clown, Anthony. He roams the Earth and makes a fool out of himself, not because he doesn't know he's doing it, but because he does. He makes himself look like a helpless idiot for people's enjoyment and it's scummy."
         Anthony was rather baffled by what Pierce was saying. "And what makes you think all that, Pierce?"
         "Because I've seen him when no one else is around. You know that walk he has like he's kinda shuffling to music? Yeah, that's gone when no one's around. It's all a farce, an illusion, Anthony." Pierce took a forkful of fried rice and shoved it into his mouth. The center of the rice was still cold, but Pierce didn't care all that much.
         "You're sounding like a crazy person, Pierce. So he wasn't walking normally, do you walk the same everywhere you go, all the time?"
         "As a matter of fact, I do. And I secretly take pride in that fact, thank you very much." Anthony took in all this information while some perp was getting handcuffed to a traffic post on TV. "Look," continued Pierce, "I'm sure Patrick is a nice guy. Believe me, I do. But you have to admit, something fishy's going on there."
         Anthony sighed. "So he's a bit different, whatever," he replied. "Besides, it's only his close friends coming to this thing so maybe he'll drop a bomb on us or something."
         "I can only imagine," Pierce uttered, taking another bite of fried rice.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




         Anthony drove himself down a few streets before finally coming up to Vaudly Lane. After turning left and going a bit further, he finally saw Patrick's house. There were three cars parked outside on the driveway, so Anthony opted to park on the street. After coming to a stop, he checked the time: 10:52 P.M. He decided to head in early and get acquainted with... well, whoever showed up to this thing.
         Patrick's house was a small, dingy yellow college home, nothing super fancy to it. I guess the one fancy thing about it was that he bought a doormat that, by this time, said "WECME" from how much the L and O had been wiped off. Anthony rang the doorbell and heard someone coming to the door. An Asian woman opened the door, about college age and wearing a Sex Pistols T-shirt and jeans. Anthony had done a similar look, but instead chose a solid gray T-shirt. She looked a bit confused as to who Anthony was in relation to Patrick.
         "You here for the party?" she uttered.
         "Yeah, I'm Anthony." She opened the door for him and let the automatic screen do the rest.
         "Rosie, but Rose is fine. We're all in the living room." Anthony had never been in Patrick's house before, and took note of the wallpaper that was still hanging up, most likely never having been renovated since this house was built. They entered the living room and there sat three more people.
         The one guy introduced himself as Roger, he was a psychology major from Idaho. He was a real live redneck, although he barely looked the part. He talked like one with all the cadence and southern drawl, but his outfit was Khakis and a golf shirt. The only real reason why Anthony knew he was a redneck was because Roger identified himself as "Roger, but people just call me Redneck".
         One of the two girls was named Britney, and the one feature Anthony took note of right away was her height. She was almost an inch taller than him, and at 6 foot 1 that was very impressive. She was clad in a tank top and a black skirt and didn't seem like much of a talker.
         The other girl was Cecilia, which Anthony would remember as "the girl who looks like she would make a voodoo doll of you". She wore heavy eyeshadow and, for some reason, took a liking to Anthony rather quickly. Anthony deduced that if anyone was the "leader" of this troop, it had to be her. It almost felt like she was initiating him into their little gang with the way she spoke.
         "Alright, let's get this thing going!" exclaimed Patrick from behind. Anthony spun around to see him clap and rub his hands together in anticipation. He was wearing a full black suit and a top hat, which would've made him feel like an aristocrat had Anthony not known he worked at a diner. The group gave tiny claps of admiration.
         "Very stylish, Pat," Cecilia remarked.
         "The top hat was a nice touch," Rose added on.
         "Thank you, thank you, you all look great as well. Anthony, great to see you here! I'm assuming you've met everyone then?"
         "Uhh... yeah, I did... Is there, like, music or... snacks or something?"
         "Snacks'r in the kitchen, buddy," Roger answered, "And the music..."
         Roger stuck out his arm in front of him, which confused Anthony. What confused him more was when he thought Roger was having a seizure. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he began to utter words Anthony didn't understand. Before he could react or call for help, a bright blue light began to weave its way from Roger's chest around his extended arm. It was like a snake getting ready to pounce on its prey from a tree branch. The serpent wrapped around Roger's wrist before shooting out and hitting the couch. After a small blue dust cloud dissipated, there sat a speaker system and accompanying music player. Roger's hand lowered and his eyes returned back to normal.
         "Is right there," he finished, speaking as though Anthony was supposed to be okay with this. He wasn't, which is why he fainted on the spot after Roger stopped talking.


         Well that was unexpected, I guess.
         Is he alive?
         Yeah, pretty sure. I can see him breathing.
         Idiot, you can't "see people breathing". That's like hearin' people blink.
         Redneck, you dipstick, that doesn't even make sense.
         He's waking.
         Guys, give him some space.
         
         As Anthony opened his eyes, the light that was penetrating his eye lids was now being covered by Patrick, who was crouching over Anthony.
         "Alright, you're okay, you're fine and that's-"
         Anthony tried to scramble to his feet, but was still very discombobulated and more or less flailed about on the floor.
         "What the shit is going on?!" he exclaimed.
         "Woah woah woah! Easy, easy, take a breath!" Patrick said, trying to calm Anthony down.
         "This can be remedied fairly easily," Britney spoke, rather cooly and with certainty. Her hair began to float around her as symbols in foggy gray began to manifest around her head. Anthony screamed louder and tried to scramble away.
         "Hey hey Brit Brit come on! He's freaking out because of magic! Just... just hold on a sec, alright?!"
         "So be it," she said, the symbols fading away and her hair falling back around her shoulders. Anthony was now backed up against a wall and questioning his sanity. Patrick mossied over and put his hands on Anthony's shoulders as the rest of the group watched.
         "Anthony, calm down. You're okay and you're not going crazy."
         "Oh yeah, easy for you to say, Patrick! You seem to know exactly what's going on in this nut house!"
         "Look, I can't explain this to you if you're hyperventilating and panicking, so take a breath and calm down. In..." Patrick and Anthony both took deep breaths together until Anthony was now only less scared out of his mind. "Alright, you're okay. Now, let's stand up and take a walk." Slowly, Anthony got to his feet and tried not to make eye contact with anyone but Patrick. They began to walk around the house as Patrick began to explain.
         "Let me begin by saying I apologize for that back there, Redneck wasn't supposed to show you magic until I'd talked to you about it."
         "M... magic."
         "Yes, magic, Anthony. We all practice it, the Mages and I. We have been for a few years. I wanted to get you and them together so you could meet."
         "Magic..."
         "Magic, yeah. It's real, alright? And me, and those four other people in the living room are part of a group called the Mages."
         Anthony rubbed his face with his hands and took in all of this information. "So... you've been this... Mages guy for... however long, and you're working at a diner and your name is Patrick Fredrickson as why the hell am I hearing about this?! Th-th-this is insane, Fredrickson! Magic?! Boomboxes appearing out of nowhere? Whoever the hell that Britney girl was about to do something to me? Is this even safe for you to be telling me about this?"
         "Yes, Anthony, this is safe! Again, this is not the way I would've done this, but here we are. The alternative is erasing your memories-"
         Anthony stuck out a finger violently at Patrick. "Don't you dare do anything to me!"
         Patrick stuck up his hands in a "Don't shoot!" fashion. "Nope, nope, nothin' goin' to be done! Nothing will be done."
         Anthony took some time to breath and collect his thoughts.
         "I know it's a lot to process..." remarked Patrick after a minute or so of Anthony pacing back and forth.
         "Oh, you think? I've just had my whole world view shattered by a hillbilly with blue coming out of him."
         "I can hear you in there, numbnuts!" Roger exclaimed.
         "I wasn't talking to you!" Anthony answered passionately. Anthony sighed and rubbed his temples. "Alright. So, magic, then."
         "Yeah, magic, then," Patrick answered.
         "And you can do it, right?"
         "Yes, I can."
         "And it's safe."
         "Yes, it's safe."
         "Show me something, then," Anthony said. Patrick was about to object, then reluctantly decided against it. He pondered before he closed and opened his right hand, and out of thin air, an apple was manifested in his open palm. Anthony stared in amazement, before nodding his head a few times and muttered Okay, alright, yeah an apple, sure. Patrick set the apple on the table nearby.
         "Anthony, I want to... re-introduce you to the group. We'll do it right this time." Anthony agreed.
         "But no magic this time."
         "No magic, I promise." They both walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room where everyone had taken their seats on the couches and single seater sofas.
         "Anthony, this is Rose. She's a Terravian Mage, meaning she can use magic to change suraces around her." Rose stood up and shook Anthony's hand, and by this point Anthony had given up trying to comprehend what Patrick was saying.
         "Quite the tumble you took back there," Rose said.
         "Yeah, fainting does that," Anthony replied. "Nice to meet you... again." Rose nodded and sat back down as Patrick and Anthony continued down the couch.
         "This is Cecilia, second in command for the group, and our resident Evelionade Mage. She specializes in using magic that pulls energy from sources and redirecting it."
         "Pleasure to meet you, Anthony," Cecilia said, shaking Anthony's hand.
         "Roger, here, is an Amalivaw Mage, which means he specializes in magic that utilizes animals to do what he wants," Patrick continued.
         Roger nodded in Anthony's direction.
         "And last but not least, we have Britney, our Decrompox Mage. She mainly deals with magic pertaining to the mind and making illusions through human energy."
         "Greetings," she said. "It is nice to finally be ourselves towards you, Anthony."
         "That's... great," he replied. Anthony took another gander around at the group of mages before a question surfaced in his mind. "Okay so if you're all... what you're all specialized in..." Anthony turned to Patrick. "What do you do?"
         "I'm an Illiodososis Mage. I specialize in creating things seamlessly through negative spaces in lines of sight."
         Anthony paused for a moment. "Right. Gotcha..."
         A heavy silence hung in the room of these six people, a silence that hung like a guillotine over each of their heads. If felt as though any wrong step and a landmine planted below would send them all to the great beyond. Roger was the first to break the silence.
         "I gotta take a piss."




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




         While Anthony's initial shock had finally worn off, he still had several, maybe even a multitude, of questions. And he needed answers before his mind filled in the gaps and caused him to panic again. The five magic users decided that Britney would be best suited to telling Anthony anything he wanted to know, as she was the most experienced magic user. That left Patrick, Rose, Cecilia, and Roger to begin some sort of "magic meeting".
         "It is called a Summit of Mages. We hold them when there is a decision to be made that could impact the Mages heavily."
         "What are they discussing?" Anthony asked.
         "Well, the first order of business would most likely be on the subject of you, Anthony. As the leader of the Mages, Patrick had the executive decision to bring you here tonight. With that came obvious risks to the sanctity of our practice," Britney explained.
         Anthony chuckled with understanding. "Oh, like I'm going to be able to tell anyone about this and have them believe me. Yeah right."
         "That is not the problem, Anthony. Magic has inherent traits, no matter the specification. One of those is that magic cannot be spoken of to people who have never seen it. The only reason we were able to tell you is because Roger deemed it necessary to use magic in front of you."
         "Hmm. Alright then, but what's the issue, then, if I can't tell anyone about it?"
         "That's just it. The fact that you must live with this knowledge with no outlet of expression will surely drive you insane sooner rather than later." Britney, Anthony was learning, was very poignant and straightforward. While Anthony was growing more nervous by the second, he found comfort in the fact that he knew Britney was always going to tell him things straight up.
         "Okay... so what's the solution here?"
         "The way I see it," Britney continued, "there are two courses of action. The first path would be to remove your memories of magic and instead replace them with that of an actual party here at this house."
         Anthony was quick to respond. "And the second option, please?"
         "The second option would be to begin your training in the mystical arts. This will allow you to keep in contact with us more often as well as allowing you to process all of this more effectively."
         "Great, so the choices are go insane or go insane and enjoy it..." Anthony rubbed his face with his hands and sighed, leaning back in the single seater sofa. "God, why did I have to get roped into this?"
         Britney pondered for a moment before putting a hand on Anthony's shoulder. "Anthony, I can't speak for you in terms of what you're going through now, but I can speak to you from experience." Britney took a seat on the nearby couch. "I was first introduced to magic when I was eight. My parents thought it time that I learn of our family's heritage. They taught me everything I needed to know before I joined my first Coven. But, even though the mind of a child is far easier to introduce magic too, I still felt unsure and scared. What eased these thoughts was my family, people who knew what they were teaching and knew it well. Now, when the Summit of Mages finishes, I'm sure they will come to you with the same two options that we've discussed already. If you choose to stay and learn with us, we will become a family of sorts for you to lean on and learn from. Just as I did from mine."
         Anthony pondered what Britney was telling him. He was feeling unsure and scared, although he tried his best not to show it. The difficult part was that he'd already made up his mind about it, it was just a matter of accepting his choice. There was no way he was letting anyone tamper with his memories, so all that was left was to start learning magic with these people. Anthony knew the road he must start walking down, and as he pondered more and more about it, the idea seemed to make more and more sense. The Mages returned from their summit and entered the living room. Both Anthony and Britney stood as Patrick stepped forward.
         "Anthony, we've been... talking about you and tonight and... well, we only have two real options here-"
         "I wanna learn," Anthony uttered. The group of mages looked confused and exchanged small glances between each other.
         "You... you want to..." Patrick stuttered out.
         "Yes, I want to learn. Britney said the alternative was erasing my memories of all of this and there's no way I'm letting that happen because no one but me is getting in my own head. So... yeah, I want to learn."
         The Mages looked between each other. Some smiles formed in the group as Patrick approached Anthony. "Look, man, I'm sorry I just wanted you here to see who I am and it all went to shit and now you're being forced into this whole thing-"
         "Patrick, Patrick, chill out, alright?" Anthony reassured him. "Look, it's gonna take me some time to get over that, I'm sure. But I can't change that and neither can you. You're my friend, Patrick. And when friends drag friends into a giant pile of shit, you might as well start rollin' around."
         Patrick, a little choked up, laughed at the terrible attempt at a joke. "Alright then," Patrick said. "As the leader of the Mages, I hereby welcome you to our Coven, Anthony Himlinn." Patrick outstretched a hand and Anthony shook it. The group applauded their new inductee. Anthony still felt weird about the whole scenario, but his shock was finally subsiding. As handshakes and hugs were exchanged, Rose eventually spoke up.
         "I believe it's time for Anthony to partake in the specialization ritual."
         "The what?" Anthony said.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




         In the basement of the house on Vaudly lane, a ritual as old as magic itself was about to be performed. Long since perfected by mages before them, the group prepared for the specialization ritual, a right of passage for any new mage. The ritual itself had originally been cause for a two day celebration amongst the mages that performed it, but Salem had whittled those celebrations to the bone. Now, it was far more commonplace to seclude oneself in a basement, out of the public eye, and perform this ritual. The ritual itself was fairly straightforward: The Eight Stones of Mysticism were spaced equally around the subject in question. The Coven Leader would then recite the words to the ritual as the stones would deliberate, circling around the subject and deciding which of them would claim this mage as a conduit for their magic. Once an agreement had been made, the selected stone approached the mage and brought them to their domain, where they would give the mage their blessing.
         Anthony was learning this all in very quick succession from Britney as the other four prepared the ritual space. He saw different colored and shaped rocks being placed around a circle on the floor, drawn in white chalk. His main concern was the whole "other realm" deal with these stones. Britney assured him that the process would feel like time was passing normally, however it would all be over in an instant in the real world. The stones sometimes got theatrical with their blessings, and she advised Anthony to just play along and try to not be disrespectful. Soon, the ritual was ready to begin.
         "Anthony," Cecilia said, "you can step in the circle now."
         "Good luck, bucko," Roger remarked. Anthony made his way into the circle and gazed at the eight stones radiating around him. He saw Patrick manifest a raggedy looking book from nowhere, beginning to read from it. His eyes glazed over white and his arms raised from the book, which was now levitating in the air, flipping its own pages as Patrick kept reading. The stones soon began, as Britney had said, to start floating and rotating around Anthony.
         Each stone would randomly light up from the inside, and Anthony then realized that each had its own unique color. He eventually saw the stone that matched Roger's magical blue color light up a few times, and silently prayed that that stone wouldn't choose him. While he was training to be a Veterinarian, he'd still not gotten over his first experience with magic just yet. Along with the blue one, there was black, white, red, green, yellow, purple, and orange. Anthony imagined them all having some sort of ethereal conversation with each glow.
         Then, after a minute of reading, Patrick stopped, as did the stones. The Mages each took in a breath and Patrick's eyes returned to normal. The stones floated motionlessly for a few moments before one right in front of Anthony began to float forward. The purple stone lit up vibrantly before flashing brightly. Anthony shut his eyes and shielded himself from the light, and as his eyes readjusted, he found himself to be floating in the middle-of-nowhere space.
         After realizing he could breathe just fine, Anthony was amazed at the sights he saw. All around him were vibrant, distant clouds of gas and stars. Whirlwinds of different colors of clouds swirled in the infinite vastness of space, and Anthony was mesmerized by this. He looked all around him, and realized that this was the stone's domain. Anthony deduced that his magical powers would most likely have to do with space, which he found cool.
         As he watched the gas clouds swirl, they soon began to rush towards Anthony and coalesce into one cohesive body. The figure was composed of twinkling stars and used two of the gas clouds as glowing eyes. The rest of the figure was filled with galaxies. The figure spoke.
         "It has been some time since I've had another conduit. Tell me your name."
         "A-Anthony... sir."
         "Well, Anthony, the other Stones and I have decided that you will become an Ulizox Mage. I can assure you that it wasn't an easy decision, but we all sensed that you belonged here, under my protection."
         "Protection?"
         "Yes. Here, walk with me." Anthony followed the figure as they began to traverse through space. It was strange, but Anthony felt like he knew that there was a floor here, and walls, but it was more intuition than truly knowing. "Ulizox Mages specialize in channeling the energy of the universe around you to create new ones. These new universes can become whatever it is you wish them to be. However, the skill required to use them effectively is the main challenge that Ulizox Mages seek to tackle. When these new universes are created, it is up to you to be able to stitch them to this reality so that they may be used. Otherwise, they will only reside in concept."
         "Holy shit..." Anthony replied, quickly regretting his choice of words. "Sorry, sorry, it just slipped out, I'm... new to uhh... magic as a whole."
         "Fear not, Anthony. Many like yourself have come and gone from this place and many have had similar experiences." The figure stopped walking and turned to address Anthony. "I will say this, though. Ulizox magic isn't the easiest magic to grasp. It takes equal parts persistence and creativity. We know you have what it takes, but do you believe in yourself, Anthony?"
         "I mean... sure, I guess. I'm positive I can learn, but it just feels like the training wheels are getting yanked off a bit too quickly."
         "Then you'll do just fine. I give you my blessing to proceed with your training."
         The figure waved his hand and Anthony disappeared from the void of space. The figure stood for a moment, gazing at the space that Anthony occupied only moments before. Another figure appeared in the void, this one being a dark apparition wearing a cloak.
         "Ulizox, explain yourself," the hooded figure asked.
         "What's done is done, Decrompox. The boy is my conduit."
         "Then you admit to violating our sacred order of things?" A biting tone hung on the voice of Decrompox.
         "Decrompox, I have seen the future. The universes I create are not all based in fiction. One will come and destroy everything if not for that boy. And he needs my magic to do it. If that means betraying our laws, then I have no regrets in saving our very reality."
         Decrompox was silent for some time.
         "Brother," Ulizox continued, "deep in your heart you know I am right. Please, speak reason to our brothers and sisters on my behalf. I must tend to this imminent problem of ours."
         "You've gone mad, brother," Decrompox retorted. "And it pains me to bear this weight."
         Dark, smokey symbols began to radiate around Decrompox's head, causing tendrils of dark energy to stab into Ulizox. He writhed in pain and soon fell silent, an eerie hush falling over the void as Ulizox lay motionless in space.