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  After several hours, the Grand Advisor raised his concern to the Overlord that the volume of ocean water had been reduced by thirty percent. All the waters of the northern hemisphere made up forty percent of the ocean volume with the other sixty percent coming from the southern hemisphere. Fontasians needed ocean water to irrigate their crops. The Grand Advisor suggested that all adult Fontasians be mobilised to fight the Evil One. Approval was given by the Overlord. The Sorceress of Azura was given the task of leading this army!

  “Where did the Evil One get his power from?” the Grand Advisor asked the Sorceress.

  “His power comes from the supernova explosions in the parallel universe. This is the most powerful black magic feared by all Magical Orders,” the Sorceress explained.

  The battle was heating up now as the Evil One extended his left hand too and more fire-balls came raining down on Fontasia. The water shield was slowly drying up and many fire-balls were able to pass through it unaffected. Many areas on the ground caught fire and the condition was getting worse. In the nearby mountain valley, more pterodactyl nests caught fire and the eggs inside it were burnt! In other parts of the jungle, many creatures were burnt alive by the fire-balls. Only some which managed to find shelter in caves, deep water ponds and other aquatic habitats escaped this catastrophe. A pair of chipmunks were among the lucky few which escaped as they happened to be near a deep river when the fire-balls came crashing down.

  The sorceress ordered the four robots to join the battle, after which she formed a purple shimmering globe around herself and flew up high into the night-sky. She had fair skin and purple eyes. With her black hair plaited neatly behind her head, the sorceress wore a diamond headband with a purple precious stone dangling from her forehead and a diamond necklace. This necklace had many diamonds weaved together at the front forming a V-shape. She wore white lace costume on her upper body and a matching long pant-skirt which flapped freely due to the strong air currents of the battle scene. She closed her eyes, lifted up both hands and began to send out telepathic waves to all adult Fontasians to march into war!

  Soon after, many Fontasians heeded the battle call and arrived on the battle scene. They came in many ways using their individual magic. Broomsticks, carpets, pails, tables, chairs, beds, tree trunks and even bath-tubs! Many Fontasians were bathing when the mobilisation order came and they dressed hurriedly and used their bath-tubs to fly all the way to the battle scene. These bath-tubs still had water in them! Those Fontasians who were about to cook their food had to give up the idea and instead stepped on two frying pans and flew to the battle scene. This ten-million strong army assembled close to the water shield looked formidable but yet comical at the same time. The four robots were among them and SAR22 immediately created two clones to increase its power.

  “Resistance is futile,” Kostara taunted.

  “Futile is absent from my vocabulary,” the Sorceress shot back.

  The Grand Advisor alerted the Overlord that all the ocean water from the northern hemisphere had been depleted! Zorak decided to enlist the help of Earthlings. He extended his right arm and opened his palm, a small red ball of light appeared in thin air. He used this magic ball of light to communicate with BURGER123.

  “Commander of star-ship, please render help. We are under attack by an evil wizard,” Zorak pleaded.

  “We will help you to fight this battle,” Captain Baldwin assured him.

  “Thank you Commander.”

  The water shield was evaporating rapidly and before anyone knew it, it disappeared. More and more fire-balls came crashing down. The Fontasian army used their individual magic to combat these fire-balls. Hence, magical badminton rackets, tennis rackets, squash rackets and even golf clubs could be seen. This battle resembled a fierce ball-game competition, with the Fontasians on one side and the evil Kostara on the other. On the other hand, the robots aimed their laser beams at those fire-balls with deadly accuracy. One of the Fontasians who sat on a broomstick had his broomstick on fire. Fortunately, another comrade in a bath-tub scooped some water and helped him extinguish the fire. Another soldier did not notice a fire-ball coming from a sharp angle, fortunately for him, his comrade saved him with a large magic squash racket. Further away, another soldier barely managed to evade a fire-ball which had come behind another fire-ball in quick succession. Zorak and his war-generals had finished their first task and they too joined in the battle. Zorak created his own gigantic fishing net and his generals each took one corner, spreading the magic net wide open. They used this net to catch many fire-balls and then closed it to fling it into outer space.

  In the nearby mountain valley, those pterodactyls after flying around their nests for sometime decided to join in the battle too. These flying reptiles spit green slime at approaching fire-balls which put out the fire in double quick time.

  “How primitive! Don’t make me laugh,” Kostara jeered.

  “We’ll see who has the last laugh,” the Sorceress returned eye for an eye.

  Flying higher up towards the sky, the Sorceress reached the battle frontline, raising both her arms towards the sky she cried, “by the power of Azura, I call upon the Goddess of Blizzard, extinguish this evil fire!” Immediately, a violent snowstorm swept through planet Fontasia. Powerful winds blew and snow started to fall in abundance. Many fire-balls were extinguished by this force of nature. After six hours had gone by before this snowstorm subsided. Many Fontasians were clad in thick winter clothing by this time. It was the coldest winter in the history of Fontasia for a millennium! The pterodactyls continued to fly in the sky, being cold-blooded, their body temperature had dropped and their skin had turned white! These alien reptiles had evolved in such a way that they could control their skin pigment concentration, to adapt to their surroundings, like terrestrial chameleons.

  “I’m sure you can do better than this,” Kostara challenged.

  “I never fail to surprise,” the Sorceress retorted.

  The Sorceress used another powerful spell to fight the evil Kostara.

  “By the power of Mother Nature, I call upon the God of Lightning, rid these fire-balls from Fontasia!”

  Immediately, nine bolts of lightning struck from heaven followed by a loud clap of thunder. The Fontasian nightsky began to be filled with massive, thick rain clouds. A strong wind began to blow. Distant thunder boomed several times. Mother nature lit up the whole sky momentarily and thereafter in quick successions. Silhouette of the distant mountain range could be seen repeatedly. Patches of white light moved about in random fashion among the thick rain clouds. The wind began to pick up intensity and blew with all its might. The thick blanket of rain cloud was blown across the sky and floated by visibly. One round patch of the nightsky was lit up for an instant and a thick lightning bolt shot down from the centre of this white patch. Another patch of the sky was lit, followed by a few more patches. Darkness. Suddenly, a long streak of lightning shot diagonally across the sky, branching out into tiny filaments along the way. Thunder boomed. The God of Lightning gave full display to his wrath!

  At this instant, lightning flashed from many parts of the sky and converged on the purple magic globe of the Sorceress and began to form a huge electrical web. This tight web of lightning successfully stopped countless fire-balls from bringing more damage. When the fire-balls touched the lightning web, they were broken up into many smaller pieces and dropped harmlessly to the ground. The thick snow on the ground put out the remaining fire immediately. The Sorceress looked like a goddess in the middle of a huge electrical web. It was a beautiful sight! This state of war went on for another four hours.

  “Take this!” Kostara yelled. He was losing patience as he could not gain an upper-hand in his fight against the Sorceress.

  Inside the Simulator room onboard BURGER123, everyone was following the events closely as they unfolded on planet Fontasia . Everybody held their breath as the war got harsher by the minute.

  ”My sensor has detected two sources of anti-neutron beam comin
g from the eyes of the wizard,” DATA reported.

  “Fire neutron beam!” Captain Baldwin ordered.

  “Affirmative.”

  A V-shaped device ejected from an opening on the topsides of BURGER123. After a few quick rotations, it locked in a stable position and fired two neutron beams towards the Evil One. These two beams successfully neutralised the anti-neutron beams. A big explosion was heard.

  “Interesting,” Kostara said.

  “Let the power of Azura teach you a lesson you won’t forget,” the Sorceress warned. Tension was building on all three sides now. All three parties got ready for the final showdown.

  “Abracadabra, ….” Kostara uttered. The rest of the incantations were interrupted by a loud thunder. A ball of negative energy was beginning to form above the Evil One’s head.

  “I call upon the power of Azura, to invoke the Epsilon Phoenix. Help me to send this Evil One back to where he came from,” the Sorceress chanted.

  Immediately after this was said, the statue of the Epsilon Phoenix began to burn with purple fire! The statue came alive. The Epsilon Phoenix shook its body and flapped its wings slowly. It turned its head around to look. It opened its beak and a high-frequency sound came forth. It lifted its head high and flew upwards with a shrill shriek. It flew and flew until it took up position high above the planet’s atmosphere. It was small compared to the wizard. Together with BURGER123, the Epsilon Phoenix and Kostara formed a triangle in space. Captain Baldwin decided to launch the ship’s most powerful weapon.

  “DATA, fire anti-matter beam!” Captain Baldwin ordered.

  “Affirmative.”

  A long rod was dropped from the undersides of BURGER123. Once this weapon took up position, it quickly opened up forming eight spokes, very much like an umbrella’s metal frame. Each spoke then went on to elongate until it reached a length of hundreds of kilometres. The firing mechanism at its centre sprang into action. Anti-matter beam radiated from the apertures along the entire length of each of the eight spokes of the weapon. After a short while, this weapon began to spin about its axis of rotation, increasing speed greatly within seconds. The resultant beam took the form of a solid anti-matter cylinder aimed at the Evil One!

  “Wow!” Chen Wei exclaimed.

  “Take that! You bad boy,” Antonio made punching motions with both his little hands.

  By this time, the Evil One had created an energy ball of diameter of several hundred kilometres. With a shout, this ball of energy was hurled towards the Epsilon Phoenix! The Epsilon Phoenix was not to be taken lightly. It too conjured up a concave negative energy force field, reaching a diameter of five hundred kilometres. This concave force field faced the oncoming energy ball from the sorcerer.

  The anti-matter beam from BURGER123 struck the Evil One full in the face. At this very instant, another beam of negative energy was shot at the Evil One. With a mighty shout, the Evil One disappeared, swearing he would be back again.

  Silence reigned.

  The morning sun had just peeped out from the distant mountains. Rampant fire still ravaged certain areas of land. Many houses were destroyed. At this time, out of the Alancia ocean depths rose a blue shimmering globe. This ball of blue light rose above the ocean waters and up into the sky and then stopped at a high altitude. A sea-nymph was inside this blue magic globe. She had beautiful, big green eyes with long eye lashes. She wore a crown of white flowers on her head and a long-sleeve, blue flowing robe made of a velvet material. At her waist level hung many strands of fine cloth fashioned like seaweeds. She had long, wavy black hair reaching down to her waist.

  The sea-nymph began to sing a high-pitched, soul-haunting song. "Oooooooo, veh-ri-veh-ray-vo....." She also did a fluid dance, moving her body and hands in wave-like motions. The wind blew strong at this moment. All the strands of seaweed-like cloth danced around the sea-nymph. Suddenly, countless blue beams shot up from her blue magic globe and touched the sky. Glittering stars appeared in the morning sky followed by a gentle downpour of rain. Rampant fire was quickly brought under control. The pair of chipmunks which had taken refuge in the river popped their heads out of the water and looked around them. They saw the jungle which had been badly burnt by fire. Gentle rain-drops fell from above and touched their heads.

  At the assembly of ruling Fontasians, the Overlord, Grand Advisor and other dignitaries watched this fierce battle with racing hearts. Many of these noblemen heaved sighs of relief when the evil Kostara was defeated and banished into the parallel universe.

  “Look! It’s the Ancient Order of Magic. Long forgotten in the history of Fontasia. The sea-nymph is weaving 'Oonbeldi',” the Grand Advisor said and pointed his finger at the blue magic globe up in the sky.

  A group of young Fontasians rushed into the open ground outside their damaged houses. "Listen, it's 'Oonbeldi', the 'Beautiful Day' spell," a little Fontasian girl said in wonder. She raised her head, stretched out both hands and caught many drops of rain in her palm. Everybody cheered when they saw the beautiful sea-nymph up in the sky. They listened spellbound to this ethereal rendition of an ancient magic spell, with rain-drops falling on their open palms and bodies. Smiles were seen on the faces of every Fontasian out in the open.

  "....leh-vine-cels-fil-wih-reh-vo,

  sodes-leh-voca-leh-vo-ria-veh...." sang the sea-nymph in a soul-haunting voice.

  When the last fire was put out, the sea-nymph disappeared mysteriously. Every Fontasian was glad that trouble was over and they could get back to normal life.

  Onboard BURGER123.

  “DATA, where did the second energy beam come from? The one that sent the sorcerer away,” Mrs. Andersen asked.

  “In the science of electrostatics, it is observed that like or same charges repel each other,” DATA began to explain.

  “Positive charge repels positive charge. Negative charge repels negative charge,” Chen Wei butt in.

  “Phoenix’s force field is negatively charged. The sorcerer’s energy ball is negatively charged. These two energy fields will repel each other. The concave force field will redirect the energy ball back to the sorcerer with an intensity ten times its original amount. Together with our anti-matter beam, which translates into negative kinetic energy, the total amount of negative energy is too much for the sorcerer to hold,” DATA elaborated.

  “Cool,” Antonio said.

  “Antonio! You should say ‘awesome’,” Mrs. Andersen corrected him. Antonio grinned innocently, exposing his little white teeth. At this moment, the image of Zorak appeared on BURGER123’s Big Screen.

  “Greetings, Earthlings. We appreciate your robot taking part in our competition and helping to fight the evil wizard. I present you with our highest honour for bravery - The Ring of Azura. With this ring, you can call on the Sorceress of Azura if you need help in future. We will respond with our utmost effort. Thank you,” Zorak said.

  In the transporter room, Beebo floated out from the decompression chamber amid excited welcome. Antonio was the happiest of all. A tiny emerald ring was looped around Beebo’s sensor antenna. Mrs. Andersen then ordered everyone back to their sleeping quarters. In the privacy of their room, Nikita and Melissa were once again discussing their dream idols. They were both munching on their favourite chocolate wafer. Nikita hugged a big soft cushion to herself.

  “Who is your dream idol?” Nikita persisted for she was dying to know the answer.

  “Zorak,” Melissa replied.

  “Oh dear, he’s an alien. Don’t you find it strange?”

  “I never thought about that.”

  Both girls started to giggle helplessly.

  Chapter 7

  In the final round of the 1984 Summer Olympics, the last contestant in the women gymnastics event did several beautiful somersaults on the balancing beam and landed perfectly on the floor. When the score was announced, it was a perfect ten! Mrs. Andersen was enjoying the resounding applause for her wonderful performance when she felt a sudden rush of cold air. She opened her eyes to find herself
lying in bed and a pair of blood-shot eyes with heavy eyebags staring back at her. She only managed to see that this pale face had a pair of white fangs jutting out from the corners of its mouth, with saliva dripping freely. She screamed at the top of her lungs!

  "Danger. Danger. Alien life-form detected," DATA warned.

  Antonio, Samuel and Chen Wei shared the same sleeping quarter. They were awakened by Mrs. Andersen's scream. All of them rushed to the command deck where much noise came from. They saw DATA surrounded in rainbow coloured shimmering light. Not long after, Nikita and Melissa joined them, rubbing their sleepy eyes. At one spot, Mrs. Andersen was crouching behind Beebo, which was firing deadly beams at the alien monster. The monster stretched out both hands menacingly towards Mrs. Andersen, but was unable to approach her. Beebo's deadly beams did not seem to have much effect on the alien as it wore a thick cloak which proved to be an effective shield.

  "DATA, why can't I contact the Captain?" Mrs. Andersen panicked.

  "A computer virus has infected the communication system. Virus cleaning procedure activated. Communication system will be restored in ten minutes' time."

  Unable to reach Mrs. Andersen, the monster turned its attention on the kids instead. A merry-go-round chase started with the vampire hot on the heels of the children. They ran round the circumference of the starship, which was shaped like a large burger.