Maledict

The Maledict is a shadowy, evil dragon that appears when Darktan absorbs the full power of The Shadow Amulet and takes on the form of a strong, powerful dragon, able to obliterate almost anything in it's path. Darktan however, keeps his normal form within the Maledict, with his head on the tongue of the dragon. Scholars say that the Maledict is a symbol of the relationship between the Shadow Amulet and Darktan, believing that the actual dragon is the Shadow Amulet, whilst the tongue is Darktan himself. The Maledict's wings have a wingspan of a single kilometre, and is able to fly to speeds of up to 400km/ph, solely naming it the fastest creature in the USA.

The Maledict looks like a dragon with a large set of wings, two legs with clawed feet, a long tail and serrated claws at the tip of its wings. It usually emits a loud, piercing scream, and Ancient High Penguin texts indicate that The Maledict is gargangtuan compared to penguins. If The Maledict is fully stretched, it can cover an entire city like South Pole City. Fortunately no Humans outside of Antarctica have spotted this creature. If they did it might expose the USA.

The Maledict (the dragon form, not Darktan himself) was finally deleted with a KZT 9000 Deletion Missile at the Great Darktonian Pie War.

Background
Ancient High Penguin texts record has it that in a final conflict between good and evil, Opacus was the first to assume this form, and originially intended to save one last final attack when he crafted the Shadow Amulet. Little did he know that the Keeper of the Light Amulet, Saint Finwë, assumed the form of a dragon as well, shining with a brilliance of light. The Maledict and its opposition clashed with each other, with a battle so intense that it almost tore the whole continent apart, slowly bringing it into a dimension between time and space itself.

According to recent discoveries, The Maledict and its foe realized that none of them could beat each other, since they are absolute equals, and left to congregate their respective orders; light and dark, order and chaos and so forth. It is also noted that only the Light Amulet and the Shadow Amulet can turn into this form, in the epic clash against good and evil. It is also depicted that every 100 years, The Maledict rises again from the Shadow Amulet, along with its new Keeper, and hunts down the Keeper of the Light Amulet for another battle once again, however the latest Shadow Amulet keeper, Darktan, has found a way to break the nature of the Shadow Amulet, and can resemble the form of The Maledict at any time he wishes. However, due to the unnatural process of this event, Darktan's powers are severely drained once he resumes his normal form.

History with Opacus
Opacus, being the first to craft the The Shadow Amulet, wanted to make the dark artifact channel all of its power into the wielder, as one last emergency resort against the heroes of justice. Since Opacus believed that the only thing that could counter good was raw evil, he travelled around the USA, siphoning all the evil out of many penguins, which some penguins believed that Opacus was "cleansing the continent" by ridding all of the evil, when he was only using it to power the Shadow Amulet.

With all of the evil from the USA held firmly in his grasp, he gave it all to the Shadow Amulet, which glowed with incredible power. As Opacus placed the Shadow Amulet back onto his neck, a dark typhoon whirled around him, and transformed him into an evil dragon, which is referring to The Maledict. Since in old times dragons were symbols of elements, the Shadow Amulet chose it fitting to turn into this beast.

Opacus and The Maledict rose up, creating terror and destruction all over the USA. Saint Finwë was notified of this and attempted to imprison the dragon within the Light Amulet, but to no avail. The Maledict counter-attacked with maniacal speed and severely injured Finwë.

After Finwë was healed at a local hospital, he thought that the only way to slow The Maledict down was to gather raw light and combat it by himself, and the only plausible place he could think of to channel enough light was from The Sun itself. Finwë conjured a heat-resistant shield, and flew off to The Sun. After enough energy was channeled, Finwë returned to the USA, and transformed into the dragon of light known as The Brilliance

With an epic clash against Opacus and The Maledict, a conflict between good and evil was assured.

History with Darktan
After Darktan "acquired" the The Shadow Amulet, he was merely testing out its powers, destroying buildings and generally rampaging around the USA. However, Luce was the obstacle in his path that held him back from his goals, so he needed a new way of countering his foe. He knew that sending his army to fight against Luce would be a pitiful result, since she would receive help from the other Keepers and she is well-skilled in the fields of the Light Amulet, so he turned to the Ancient High Penguin texts to discover the Shadow Amulet's true purpose.

Looking through the pages, he noticed an interesting section. Archaeologists recovered the paper that Darktan read, and this is what was written in the page;

Chapter 11: The Maledict

''The Maledict is the source of all evil in Antarctica. Appearing every 100 years, it drains the evil that was once in penguins so that it can continue to live on, and its spirit is locked inside The Amulet of Shadow. Should the wielder of the Amulet of Shadow be in ever need of emergency, The Maledict will intertwine with his or her spirit, and will bring fortheth a time of darkness and despair along the snowy plains of the United States of Antarctica. However, this unnatural process will severely cripple the wielder, since The Maledict can only resume its full potential every 100 years. The Maledict is the true definition of raw evil, which can only be defeated by raw good. However, The Maledict can never be destroyed, only subdued, and the only creature ever to subdue the dragon would be its counterpart, known as The Brilliance.''

Darktan numerously attempted to unlock The Maledict inside the dark artifact, forcing himself to think that this was a time of crisis. His first attempts were failures, but eventually, his will grew stronger by every passing day, and can successfully change into the Maledict with ease. Due to the amount of pressure intertwining with The Maledict places on Darktan, he usually needs about a day's rest before he can even attempt to transform once again.

Involvement
Penguins from around the USA have reported an odd occurance of eclipses in certain areas, yet it is unbeknowest to them that the shadow that covers them would be The Maledict's colossal body. Maledict attacks have been reported as well, saying that it can create a fiery trail in its wake, and breathe a strong inferno as normal dragons do. Some penguins have also encountered that The Maledict can also create a meteor shower, with rocks barraging the Antarctic surface with up to 500m in diameter, similar to that of a small Armageddon. Luckily, there's been little to no injuries from The Maledict's fury, since most penguins are smart enough to put out the fire it sends out. However, many buildings have been destroyed from The Maledict's rampage, and the debris is yet to be salvaged.

Luce has encountered The Maledict many times, but unfortunately seems to fail at neutralizing the beast every time, since she is unbeknowest to the dragon form inside of her amulet. However, King Triskelle, Mayor McFlapp, and the other High Penguins are fruitless at work, trying to unlock what could cause Luce to assume her dragon form: The Brilliance.

Ternville Sightings
Reports of The Maledict in Ternville say that Darktan is after the Air Amulet, whom the keeper being Mayor McFlapp. Mayor McFlapp attempted to slow down the dragon by conjuring up several hurricanes, windstorms, hailstorms, farts, and many other air-related attacks to protect his beloved city. However, The Maledict retaliated by destroying all of the buildings, leaving debris in his wake. The only way the Mayor was able to get rid of the Maledict was to narrate that "the crazy, stupid monster flew off and never returned again!" This made it so that Darktan could never return to Ternville, and Mayor McFlapp quickly rollbacked his destruction. Luckily, creatures were not injured, and a warning notice to all USA states were announced to be warned of the Maledict's reign of terror.

Pengolia Sightings
It is unknown what Darktan's aim in Pengolia is, but many assume that he and The Maledict travelled here to either make Pengolia an example of The Maledict's power, or he may plan to have Pengolia his first target. A spy was sent into The Darktonian Realm to investigate the cause of why The Maledict attacked here, and it was recently found out that Darktan plans to make a small training facility for his minions in Pengolia.

Left in The Maledict's wake of Pengolia was debris, bruised but not hurt soldiers, and Penghis Khan exacting out his anger on his people.

Penghis Khan had this to say about the attack;

"PENGHIS KHAN IS FURIOUS ABOUT THIS! PENGHIS KHAN CAN'T RULE PENGOLIA IF THERE IS NO PENGOLIA! PENGHIS KHAN MUST PWN THIS MALEDICT WITH HIS IMPERIAL PWNAGE!!"

Dorkugal Sightings
Since Fred is a joint keeper of The Ice Amulet along with Explorer, Darktan felt it was necessary to attack Dorkugal in order to separate the two, but Fred narrowly escaped The Maledict's grasp. In the siege on Dorkugal, many schools, universities and libraries were destroyed, since Darktan knew that the Dorkugese thrive on learning and computers, and turned many buildings into rubble. The Dorkugese are frantic about this attack, and are trying their best to be back online. Unlike the recent attacks, a few penguins have actually been injured, with severe paper-cuts, wet willies, Chinese burns and many more. Doctors expect a full recovery from these poor penguins within a few days, then they will need to work on getting Dorkugal back online.

Fred is currently attempting to help with the reconstruction of Dorkugal.

Darktonian Realm Sightings
PSA Agents have been sent in on Reconnisance missions to find out the relationship between Darktan and The Maledict, and it seems that Darktan fully keeps his personality, mind and control over the beast on the tongue of The Maledict. Some penguins theorize that Darktan could be the central brain of The Maledict, and exacts his will in the beast.

However, Darktan is a terrible dragon driver. Darktan's unnatural use of The Maledict results in his inability to control it properly, resulting in doing a doughnut manuver above the mansion with this dragon. It seems that his evil and brutal use of the beast makes it hard to steer.

United Penguin's Republic Sightings
Darktan was in need of minions, used the Maledict to attack the United Penguin's Republic. Senator Kelly told the citzens that it was just an eclispe, not wanting to panic the citzens. The Leader made things better by putting up a fake weather channal to warn if Maledicts coming a eclispe was coming. However, Darktan hacked into the fake weather programe and told everyone about Maledict which caused panic. Senator Kelly calmed everyone down but a Mwa Mwa Penguin kidnapped Senator Kelly. Thankfully, she was rescued by the PSA, who also saw sightings of Maledict.

GourdZoid Council Hall Meeting
The GourdZoid Council Hall recently had a meeting to discuss the terms regarding The Maledict. All available penguins were hereby ordered to go to PBJT Valley, and participate in The Great Darktonian Pie War, to end Darktan's madness once and for all.

Explorer commented:

''THAT DRAGON IS GOING DOWN! DOWN, I SAY! '''D-O-W-N DOWN! DOWN DOWN DOWN!'

King Triskelle had this to say about The Maledict:

I remember about one hundred years ago, when I was a lad... (long and boring story that no one wants to hear)

Professor Zlo Shroomsky had this to say about The Maledict:

''Ugh... I hate giant lizards of evil... if you need me, I will be in my bomb shelter that I built last week.''

The Leader said this:

"If you gave the Shadow thing to me, none of this would had happaned. Ok, I supose I would destroy a few states with Maledict, throw out Judge Xavier... drat Mayor McFlapp will end it. Oh, I'm suing Mayor McFlapp!"

Darktan chuckled and sent this message:

Foolish creatures. You actually think this is your puny Bureau of Fiction's doing? Are you really that dumb?

You see, having done months of research on the Amulet of Shadow, I figured out that with the proper chant, I can override those silly fools and their organs, to a small extent. The Maledict is Immune to the Masters!

Do you want to know the chant? "Gutten min, denne middagen er det all sann kriger bestrebe seg på!"

For you simpletons: "My boy, this dinner is what all true warriors strive for!"

If you all surrender to your might, maybe, just maybe, I will not torture you for eternity with [[Media:Darktonian Polka.ogg|fantastic polka music]].

Finally, Mayor McFlapp had this to say about the Maledict:

'THAT DRAGON IS GOING DOWN! DOWN, I''' -- oops, wrong line, wot. Becky, who wrote these flippin' cues, anyway? (Becky: Illustrator Keith, sir.) Well, I sure will get t' work on patching up our anti-exorcism firewall, wot wot! As they say in Pengolia, Needs More Balaika!''

Hardcore
When Darktan absorbs the full power of the Amulet of Aether, Hardcore appears. Originally made by Xorai, stolen by Darktan II, finished in dark black, it is the most deadly, creature made dragon. Hardcore looks very similar to Maledict, but is translucent. Its average size is smaller than Maledict. It doesn't breathe fire, but instead steam or very hot smoke. It is immune to deletion. Unlike Maledict, Hardcore was created by the Bureau of Entropy.

Unlike Maledict, Hardcore can change its size, transform quicker, and is easier to pilot. However, Maledict is more powerful, faster, heals more quickly, and can unleash destruction faster than Hardcore.

Hardcore has a very special power; it can destroy anyone anytime by manipulating the empty space around every atom in it, and cause the victim to fall apart. While it can do this an infinite of times every day, it only do this in full power though and it has to concentrate on the victim or it will miss. Hardcore would prefer just stepping or breathing steam on them, but this power would come in handy when it is somehow unable to do those things.

Trivia

 * As the predecessor of the Shadow Amulet, Opacus has exceptional control over the Maledict, whereas Darktan had a weak control over the beast.
 * The Maledict's claws can slice through plates of steel.
 * Darktan and The Maledict share both of their powers.
 * According to the dictionary; Maledict means "curse"
 * The Maledict can be used for good, as in the case of Umbra and Vesper.
 * When The Maledict drains the evil from penguins, they become good, model citizens. The Maledict's draining grounds consist mostly of Hackzon Valley and Ban Island, turning the once troublesome penguins into model citizens. In a way, The Maledict is helping many penguins.
 * The Maledict is rumored to be created by the elusive Bureau of Entropy. In reality it was created by Teh Not Universal Bureau Of Fiction Wannabes. However the BoE's Department of Mysteries had a major role in having the monster stay.
 * Maledict, like Hardcore, terrifies Xorai and makes him faint when seen.