Apocalypse (novel)

Apocalypse is the last novel of the Invasion Cycle, and thus in the Weatherlight Saga. It tells the conclusion of a cycle that began in Invasion and continued in Planeshift.

Apocalypse was written by J. Robert King and published in June 2001.

Plot
The end is near!

Phyrexian plagues and shock troops have taken their toll. The final stage of the invasion has begun, and the dark lord Yawgmoth himself plans to cross over into Dominaria to claim his prize. With time running out, the battered heroes' last hope to save their home lies in an ancient, untested weapon—a collection of artifacts known as the Legacy.

Bear witness to the apocalypse.

Summary
This book starts precisely where Planeshift ended.

In Phyrexia, Gerrard and Urza, Dominaria’s greatest protectors, have turned on their allies and joined Yawgmoth’s side. Their new master creates an arena which he fills with countless avatars of himself, and has Gerrard and Urza fight, promising to fulfill the greatest wish of the winner. Urza wishes to study artifice with Yawgmoth, Gerrard wants Hanna to be returned from the dead.

On Dominaria, Karn reveals that breaking his oath of pacifism (In the Invasion book), has cracked his memory cap. He can now access all his memories, and has started to change, knowing things he couldn't possibly know, even with his memory restored. He has the crashed Weatherlight merge with the Thran Tome, and the flying ship is reborn as a sentient creature.

Bo Levar, Commodore Guff, Freyalise and Lord Windgrace discover Urza's treachery, Taysir’s death, and the destruction of the master-Soul Bomb. They decide to set off the Soul Bombs manually.

Now that the Weatherlight has become sentient, Multani can no longer live in its wood unhampered. He travels back to his home in Yavimaya, on his way discovering that Benalia, Llanowar, and even the merfolk countries under the sea have all fallen to Phyrexian forces. Yavimaya is safe, but Multani realizes it is only a matter of time before it too is attacked. He decides to take the initiative and transplants a large chunk of Yavimaya onto Urborg. Crovax leaves his throne room to fight, but is overwhelmed by Yavimayan forces. He flees to regroup his army.

Aided by the new arrivals from Yavimaya, Eladamri, Lin Sivvi and Grizzlegom try to find a backdoor into the Stronghold. They don't find it, but do discover a group of dwarves who are planning to blast a tunnel towards the Stronghold's tunnel and then activate the dormant volcano in which is situated.

In Phyrexia, Gerrard wins the duel by decapitating Urza. Yawgmoth rewards him by tenfolding his strength, endurance, knowledge, and will, but Gerrard only wants Hanna. Yawgmoth sends one of his avatars, one that looks like Hanna, to Gerrard, but he sees through the deception and attacks the avatar. Yawgmoth had located his true essence in the form (thinking Gerrard would never harm it) and in a knee-jerk reaction he flings Gerrard out of Phyrexia to save himself.

Gerrard ends up in the throne room of the Stronghold, where he is reunited with Squee. The two of them defeat the Phyrexian troops inside. Ertai realizes he can't defeat Gerrard, and summons Crovax back to the Stronghold.

While Gerrard and Squee fight Ertai and Crovax, the dwarves blast their way into the volcano. The Coalition forces invade the place, and so does the Weatherlight after having located Squee on their scanners. Gerrard kills Crovax with an axe, Squee messes with the controls of a rejuvenation chamber, frying Ertai, and then all of the Dominiaran forces in the Stronghold are reunited and leave in the Weatherlight just before the dwarves engulf the place in lava.

The four remaining members of the Nine Titans set off the last Soul Bomb, gutting Phyrexia. But Guff reveals Yawgmoth has left the plane, planning to make Dominaria his new home. Yawgmoth finally comes back to Dominaria, after 9000 years, in the form of a death-cloud, killing the living and resurrecting the dead to fight for Phyrexia.

The Weatherlight drops off all the warriors on the Urborgan battlefield, except for the main crew. Then they see Yawgmoth arrive in his new form however, and have no idea how to fight it. Urza, Or rather his head, which Gerrard had been carrying around all that time, reveals he is still alive and says he wants to open the Power Matrix of the Weatherlight to recreate Serra's Realm on Dominaria. This will most likely devastate an entire hemisphere or Dominaria, but at least the other half will live. But Karn tells of the Null Moon, which has been gathering white mana ever since it was brought into orbit 9000 years ago. Weatherlight planeshifts to that moon and gathers the mana within, planning to kill Yawgmoth by channeling that mana.

On Dominaria, Bo Levar discovers Guff is some kind of editor of the Multiverse, and has already approved of Yawgmoth's victory. The ‘walker manages to talk some sense into his friend, and Guff sets out to undo this. In his library he erases the dark destiny of Dominaria, making the future uncertain once more, just before Yawgmoth's death cloud eats him alive.

Eladamri, Lin Sivvi and their army commit suicide by jumping off a Magnigoth Treefolk to make sure Yawgmoth doesn't get them.

The entire minotaur and metathran armies on Urborg are killed by the cloud, save for a small group which includes Grizzlegom that is brought to Hurloon by Lord Windgrace just in time.

Bo Levar sacrifices his life to prevent the artist colony of the Eliterates from ever falling into Phyrexian hands.

The Weatherlight launches the Legacy Weapon. Yawgmoth tries to flee through the portal in the Stronghold to control his undead forces from a safe place, but finds the portal and the rest of the Stronghold covered in lava. He turns around and starts to fight the blasts from the Weapon. Yawgmoth overcomes the blast and then turns himself into large tentacles that grab the Weatherlight. The ship's sentience is gone; it died from the strain of focusing the Legacy Weapon. Just as it seems they're all done for, Urza has Gerrard remove his powerstone eyes and place them into Karn's chest. This creates a radiant light that just keeps expanding and absorbs all parts of the Legacy in it: Urza, Gerrard, and Karn first. The Weatherlight crew jumps off the ship just before it too is gone. Nobody is sure what happened, but the light defeated Yawgmoth, and all Phyrexian forces are virtually brain-dead from the feedback of their god's death. All over Dominaria, the last survivors take the invaders apart with the greatest of ease.

One year later, in a ceremony attended by survivors from all over the globe, Freyalise erects a monument for the fallen where once Crovax's estate had been. After the ceremony Squee and Tahngarth join Sisay on her new ship but Orim reveals she has made other travel plans: Karn suddenly appears next to her. The golem reveals he is an accumulation of the entire Legacy, including Urza and Gerrard. After a joyful but short reunion, Karn leaves to take Orim to Mercadia, where she has made plans to marry Cho-Manno. Sisay, Squee, and Tahngarth set out on new journeys in their new ship, which they dub the Victory.