Special shout-out to 'AmericanGecko', who was the 600th review for this epic story!

EPILOGUES

Epilogue IV:
What happened to Maze

Maze staggered through a field in the darkness of night. It was raining, with thunder rumbling around him, and rippling cascades of lightning flashed through the storm clouds above. He was soaked from head to toe, but he didn't care.

After all his labors, after all his planning, he had failed. Monkey Fist was gone. The Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer was destroyed. All his golem slaves were released, and he was alone again. To have come so close, to have had the entire world literally in his clutches - only to have it slip away - because of that girl.

All his dreams - all his ambitions - everything lay in ruins. Even the Great Bear had forsaken him. And an anger without hope tore at his spirit with more ferocity than the surrounding tempest. He reached the crest of a hill and stumbled, falling to his knees and gasping in the mud.

'Is there no one I can turn to?' he howled to the night sky. 'Will I never have my revenge...?'

But even as he looked up into the darkness, he saw another light. But this light was not pale blue, like the lightning bolts that flashed beneath the clouds. This light was red - and shone from above the storm.

Then the clouds were split apart. A beam of piercing red lanced down from the sky and smote the earth in a field not far from where Maze stood. The shadow shaman gasped and threw himself down, rolling back several feet as the force of the blast wave swept over him. He felt stinging fragments of earth strike against his skin as he tumbled back down the hill, and there was a mighty roar of sound.

Then all was quiet again, except for the spattering noise of the rain and the wind. Maze crawled slowly back to the top of the hillside, and his mouth fell open in amazement.

The field beyond was ablaze with fire. The raindrops hissed where they struck the earth, but from his vantage point, Maze could tell that this explosion was not natural. The beam had carved the earth and left a huge, but clearly discernable mark, which was lined with flames that glowed red through the night.

And the mark was shaped like a hawk.

A war hawk.

The End