"It's my brother," Vortigan tells me.

"That's your brother!?" I ask with surprise.

"I know he disappeared and even had my son killed... but to join the orcs and attack his own people?" he says surprisingly calm. "He's gone too far. He is no longer my brother and must be put down," he says and frowns.

I look back out towards the tent and sigh. "We could just fire a sunfire shell at him from here," I tell him.

"No, I want to know why he's done this," Vortigan replies. "I'm going down there, would you assist me?" he asks me.

I nodded to him. "Sure, but what will we do about all the orcs around him?" I ask. I noticed a few brute orcs protecting Orthos.

"Can you have your ship blast the area around the tent and have your snipers pick off any orcs close to him?" he asks.

"Sounds simple enough," I reply.

We give the crew and snipers their orders and begin the attack. I use my fast gliding wings while Luna and Vortigan fly beside me. We get halfway there when the cannons and rifles open fire. The orcs are blown away and any left standing are picked off by the snipers.

We land in front of Orthos where Vortigan casts a large shield barrier around us. It will help prevent Orthos leaving while keeping the orcs out.

"Ah brother. Soooo good to see you again..." Orthos says sarcastically.

"Orthos, why have you done this. Why did you try to kill my son?" Vortigan asks him.

"Try? I was told he was killed," he says unhappily.

"He was, but I revived him," I tell him and grip my sword tighter.

He looks at me with a frown. "You? And just who are you exactly?" he asks me.

"You don't need to know," I reply. If he doesn't know who I am, I'm not about to give him that information.

Orthos scoffs at me. "No matter, I shall take Reymorah for myself as it's rightful King. You, brother, have always been father's favourite. It should have been me to take his place! I am the eldest!" he yells at Vortigan and draws a grim looking staff. It has a human skull on the tip of it and I can just feel the arcane energy oozing from it.

"Now rise my loyal servants!" he shouts as the dead orcs inside the barrier come back to life as undead. He's a necromancer!?

Vortigan looks disgusted. "You would fall so low as to use necromancy!? Then there is no hope to save what was once my brother," he says and raises his battleaxe and brings it down on one of the still rising orcs. I follow along and decapitate another with the air element in my blade while Luna also impales the skull of an orc with her scythe.

While Vortigan is distracted, I notice Orthos channelling arcane elements into his staff and point it at Vortigan. I cast a shield element on my shield, giving it a barrier in front of it and teleport between Vortigan and Orthos just as he fires.

The beam hits my shield and since my shield is facing right at Orthos, the beam's energy feeds back to him and knocks him on his back. "GAH!" he yelps and starts to get back up. I then channel two lightning elements and spray him with it making him spasm on the ground as the electricity paralyses him.

Vortigan channels two water elements and sprays Orthos with it before channelling four cold elements to freeze him, but Orthos teleports away to the other side of the barrier to avoid it.

"Don't think just because there's more of you that you can defeat me!" Orthos yells and channels five arcane elements. I cast a barrier in front of us and Orthos casts an arcane nova. The barrier deflects the nova and Vortigan launches a rock through the barrier, shattering it and hitting Orthos in his right arm.

"GAAAAAHHH!" Orthos yells and drops his staff as his arm breaks with an audible snap.

Vortigan walks over and grabs Orthos by the collar of his robe. "Who put you up to this!? I know you wouldn't be able to pull this off on your own!" he asks his brother.

Orthos just laughs and spits on Vortigan's face. "The Master will cleanse this world and that of your new allies. He promised me eternal life and Reymorah if I can kill you, dear brother," Orthos says and chuckles.

"Queen Luna. Could you perform the same spell you used on the assassin we caught?" Vortigan asks her.

"We can try," she replies and walks over to Orthos and holds her hand out to him, but just before she made contact she pulls back. "His mind is protected by dark magic. We cannot get close without feedback or possible damage to our mind," she tells us.

"Hahahahaaa! The Master protects me even now," he says smugly.

"Then let us see him protect you from this," Vortigan says and raises his battleaxe above his head.

A loud gurgle of a roar echoes throughout the battlefield and heavy quakes shake the ground making it hard to keep our balance.

"It finally arrived!" Orthos says with a grin. He pulls out some kind of crystal and it starts glowing. "If I can't have Reymorah, then I'll just let it burn!" he says and vanishes in a flash of light, that was elven portal magic...

"Dammit!" Vortigan says. "I should have just let you blast him," he says to us and sighs. He then looks towards the west, I follow his gaze and almost shit myself. A giant, and not just any giant. An undead giant fades into sight and is stomping its way over to Elysium. It must have had some kind of invisibility or illusion spell on it.

"Erm... how do we deal with that?" I ask. The giant is at least three times bigger than an ogre!

"We need to head back to the walls," Vortigan says and lowers the barrier. We then quickly fly back up to the galleon, more like I get dragged again by Vortigan.

We touch down on the deck and I turn to Luna. "Luna, can we shoot it with the sunfire cannon?" I ask her.

She looks down with a frown. "We are afraid not. The cannon's braces came off from its last shot. They were damaged by that boulder that hit the ship," she tells me.

"Bugger," I mutter and look back at the giant. It's taking long strides and is getting closer to the city. "Then how do we kill it? It can't feel pain. The only way to stop it is destroy the brain or purge the arcane energy from it, and that would take too long," I tell them.

"We could try and cripple its legs, stop its movement so we can then concentrate on killing it," Vortigan suggests.

"That could work, but how will we damage its legs? My spells aren't strong enough to damage something that big," I tell him.

He frowns and looks at the giant. A puff of pink smoke next to me makes me jump in surprise. "SHIT!" I yell startled as Discord comes into view as the smoke dissipates.

"Oh keep your knickers on you big baby. I've been watching the battle while trying to get a hold of a few relics from Swirlys lab. I managed to get two of them," he tells me and holds out two orbs. One green and the other red.

"What are they," I ask.

He grins widely. "They are manifestations of the Elemental Aspects," he tells me.

"Manifestations?" I ask confused.

"Yup, each element has an aspect that represents it. Kind of like how Twilight and her girl gang represent the elements of harmony," he replies. "and here's the kicker. I'm the Aspect of Chaos," he tells me with a grin so wide, you'd think his head was split in half.

I stare at him wide eyed and then back at the orbs. "I take it these are the aspects of life and fire?" I ask him.

"Correct, I was going to teach you how to make a contract with the aspects, Just like ol' Beardy did, but I think you don't exactly have the time for that now," he says and holds the life orb out to me. "You're going to have to ask Mother Gaia very nicely to help you here," he tells me.

I look back at the giant and it's half way across the battlefield already, trampling orcs without care as it closes in on the City. I turn back to the orb and frown.

'Fuck it,' I think to myself.

I sheath my sword, then I reach out and grip the orb in my right hand. My vision turns green, blinding me for a few seconds and when it returns, I'm standing in a beautiful lush forest full of life. A small pond is in front of me encircled by trees of many kinds. Animals are roaming freely and flowers of many colours surround the pond.

The pond ripples and a woman whose skin looks like tree bark with vines for hair rises out of the water. She's wearing a dress made of leaves and a headdress of flowers. She hovers above the water eyeing me curiously.

"You feel familiar," she says in a soft warm tone. "What is your name?" she asks.

I shake my head and approach the edge of the pond. "My name is Adrian Stormsword ma'am," I reply with a bow.

"Hmmmm. I've heard rumours of you from the Aspects of light and shadow," she says, floating towards me. She places her right hand under my chin and lifts my head slightly, looking me in the eyes. "Your magic feels similar to that of Starswirl," she tells me.

"He's my ancestor," I tell her.

She then pulls her hand away. "I see. So what has his descendant come to me for?" she asks me.

"Elysium is under attack from an army of orcs and the battle was going well until an undead giant arrived. We don't have the means to take it down and Discord said I should ask you for help," I tell her.

"Discord? So, he has offered you my life orb has he? And why should I aid you? I have no contract with you. I was bonded to Starswirl, not his offspring," she tells me.

"I want to protect Reymorah. To stop any more senseless death and bloodshed," I tell her.

"And what does that have to do with me? What do I get in return?" she asks.

"What do you want?" I ask her back.

She steps onto the edge of the pond and flowers bloom around her feet. She cups my face in her left hand and smiles. "I want you to restore the land that Grogar destroyed when he first attacked and where Starswirl gave his life to protect this world. I want you to use my power to return life to the Dread Wastes and revive the Moonglade Forest," she tells me.

I look her in the eyes and smile. "I would be honoured to do that for you. I'm interested in seeing where Starswirl saved the world myself," I tell her.

She smiles back and giggles. "Then with that promise as our contract, I bind myself to you, Adrian Stormsword," she says and surprises me by kissing me.

I go wide eyed and my vision goes green again.

---

---

For the last two minutes Adrian's eyes have been closed as he holds the orb tightly.

"Is he alright, Discord?" I ask him.

"Oh he's fine. He's just talking to Mother Gaia at the moment," he tells me.

"Who is this Mother Gaia?" I ask him.

Vortigan speaks up. "She's said to be the embodiment of life itself. The mother of all life in the world and the one who keeps it in balance, but I never thought the aspects were real," he tells me.

"Pretty much what he said. She's the most kind hearted aspect out of the lot of us and I doubt she would turn Adrian down," Discord says.

I frown with worry and look back at Adrian, only to gasp as his eyes are now open with a green light in them. The orb then sinks into the palm of his hand as vines start to spread out from behind his neck and cover most of his body with white flowers blooming on them as a crown of roses and thorns sits upon his head. He turns to look at the giant and he casts his wings spell. Without a word, he flies off and stops in front of the giant.

He glows brightly as a pulse of green energy expands from him, covering nearly the whole battlefield. I feel my fatigue fade away and energy flow through me but the giant stops when the energy hit it.

Adrian holds out his right arm and faces his palm at the giant. His eyes glow brighter and radiate a green mist as a large beam of green magic from his hand slams into the giant. The giant roars in agony as a red and black sickly looking aura leaks from the massive creature.

The giant swings at Adrian with its right arm and Adrian holds up his left arm to block it. Thick bark in the shape of a shield forms twice his size and stops the giant's attack making Adrian move only about a metre from the impact.

"By the gods, where is he getting this power from?" Vortigan asks in awe.

"Mother Gaia has given him her power in exchange for something, it's how we form a contract with a mortal... though Adrian isn't exactly a mortal anymore," Discord replies.

"He's not mortal?" Vortigan asks with shock.

"He no longer ages. He can still be killed like a mortal, but time no longer has its grip on him," Discord tells him.

I ignore them and concentrate on the battle as Adrian brings his right arm back and bark grows around it. It grows to the size of a large tree in the shape of a fist. He then thrusts his arm forward and punches the giant right in its jaw. The bark shatters and a blast of green mist engulfs the giant, making it roar again as more black and red coloured energy escapes.

The giant stumbles and falls onto it's back, making the ground quake violently. Adrian flies up and faces both his palms down at the monster. After a few seconds of charging up energy, he unleashes a huge beam at least two metres wide down at the floundering behemoth. It impacts the giant in its chest and a crater forms under the brute from the force.

Black and red energy flows out of the giant like a raging river and I notice Adrian's eyes start to flicker and get duller as the beam starts to shrink in size while the white flowers on the vines begin to wilt and fall off. After a few more seconds the giant stops moving and the beam gives out. The vines on his body drop off him and he starts descending. His wings begin flickering before fading away and he drops like a rock.

"ADRIAN!" I shout out and bolt towards him as fast as I can. When I'm close enough, I teleport under him and catch him.

I grunt from the impact and flap my wings as hard as I can to slow our decent. I manage to level out and sigh in relief. I look at Adrian and lift the visor on his helmet to see him asleep. I smile seeing he's alright and head back up to the ship.

I place Adrian down gently and take his helmet off. I then stroke his hair with his head on my lap, he looks so peaceful right now.

Vortigan looks at Adrian for a few seconds and then at me. "Queen Luna, if not for Adrian's and your aid. My Kingdom would have fallen today. Whenever you require our aid against these gryphons of yours, know that we shall answer the call," he tells me with a bow.

"We thank thee, King Vortigan. When the time comes, we shall look forward to having thy aid in battle," I reply. "but for now, let us return to thy Castle so Adrian may rest," I say to him.

"Very well, I'll have a royal guest room prepared for you both," he tells me.

I order the crew to take us back to the Castle and stay by Adrian's side as I frown deep in thought. 'If Adrian can make contracts with all these Aspects... would he become so powerful as to be seen as a true God? Our ponies see our sister and us as goddesses as we can raise and lower the sun and moon, and we have no where near the power Adrian just showed,' I think to myself. I stroke his hair lovingly while looking at his sleeping face. 'What would happen should he use that power in anger?' I ask myself with worry.

I sigh and look out towards the approaching Castle.

'We'll worry about that later. Right now we should rest and aid Elysium in the aftermath,' I think to myself as the battle below still rages on.

Next Chapter: Chapter 50: Aftermath Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 50 Minutes