by Liandra Jake
"It's a fucking dragon!" Arend snapped back.
"Arend, you took on the Black Monster without flinching." Richard said.
"Yeah, but ONE dragon ended the Great Wars. The Legendary Weapon wielders, the airships, practically the entire Sereph Empire. It's the sole reason the human population barely passes a billion!"
"A billion?" Rose asked. "But you're everywhere."
"You know the 1000-mile canyon right?" Arend asked. Rose nodded. "A dragon knocked an airship into the ground to create that. If it decides to attack us, we have no chance of surviving!"
"Pith's peaceful unless you provoke him."
Arend jumped. The little girl was standing before him. "Is everything okay? You all seem pretty spooked." The dragon asked; his face only a foot from Arend. His tongue struggled over the words.
Arend smiled nervously, face twitching. "We're fine." He croaked.
"Hey! You're the suit guy!" The girl exclaimed as she pointed to Richard.
"Are these your friends?" She looked around at the group.
She stopped on Rose. "Who's she?"
The dragon lowered his head to look Rose in the eye. "An unmarked Sereph? How interesting." Shouting could be heard behind Arend' group.
More Dragon Hunters had arrived, this time with a full arsenal. "Not again. I can't stave off more of them without hurting someone." The dragon said.
"Why are they here?" Corenden asked.
"They were sent here by someone named Teneo." The girl replied. Rose frowned. Arend snapped.
Arend dropped his canvas bag with the other bags on the ground. "Wait here." He growled.
He met a brave scout midway, who, against his own wishes, was sent to meet Arend. "Stand aside. We don't want to have to fight you." The scout said quickly.
Arend leaned close to his face. "Teneo Myshcell sent you?" The scout nodded. "Our leader met-" He stopped as Arend marched forward.
"Where's you leader?" Arend demanded as he pushed through the confused mass of Dragon Hunters.
A man in white scale armor stepped forward, splitting his fellow Guild members around him. "I'm him." He said. An-"
Arend stopped him. "I don't care. What I want to know is how you met my father."
He frowned and looked Arend over. His eyes widened when he stared at Arend' face. "Arend! That must be you! Your dad-" Arend punched him in the stomach. He crumpled against the red flames behind him.
"You all need to leave. Teneo is dead. Anyone saying otherwise is lying." Arend said before turning around.
"But the dragon-"
"The dragon is protected, and would prefer not having to litter this valley with your corpses. Turn back now or things will get bloody." Arend warned.
"We came here to hunt a dragon, and we will-"
"Overclock!" Arend cried as he pressed down on the Dragon Drive. It clicked softly.
The speed of the Korvan ring sped up to about 200 RPM, much slower than the old Overclock, but it was the same speed the inside of the Drive was spinning. A white aura surrounded Arend. White Orenth poured out from the spouts of the blade, coating it in a dense cloud that turned the blade white. Arend cut back blindly. Every Matrix within the range of Arend' wave-like attack exploded with power, frying each of them.
Many had burns and other injuries from the feedback loop. "I have power you have no hope of conquering. I suggest you find a more reliable way to fight." Arend walked away from the group, popping the Drive back to normal with a twist of the handle. Their full retreat was swift and clean. Pith backed up when Arend rejoined the group.
"What's wrong Pith?" the girl asked.
"Stand away the faint of heart, for chaos this man art." Pith said with a worried look to Arend.
"A shadow upon the pyre, a man who consumes fire." Arend added.
"So you know the power you hold is dangerous." Pith said, a little relived, but still tense.
"What are you quoting?" Rose asked.
"An old poem about the only man who could control every form of Orenth. Well, at least it was until he was born." Pith replied.
"Care to stop speaking in riddles?" Iode asked.
"Stand away the faint of heart, for chaos this man art.
A shadow upon the pyre, a man who consumes fire.
Howling as the distant star, sacred lighting that will mar.
No one can stand against this man, he who had the Godly hand.
When the final sun does rise, the last dragon flies,
Heaven and Earth; Sun and Moon, the man shall meet his doom."
Michael spoke the poem from memory.
"Sounds a bit ominous." Corenden said.
"And it's a bit ironic." Arend added. "Seeing as Pith here is Fire and Lightning based."
"Piethel. My name is Piethel." Pith corrected.
"Why does she call you Pith?" Arend asked.
"He was the one who raised me. I found it easier to say day to day." The girl replied.
"So who are you people? How is it you travel with a man like him?" Pith asked.
They all quickly spoke out their names. "Most of us tagged along for some reason or another. Richard, Corenden, and Arend had set out to recreate Arend' weapon and teach him the finer details of fighting." Michael explained. Pith nodded slowly.
"My name's Kathy!" The girl exclaimed. "After the only other human Pith had met!"
"Until now." Pith added.
Arend' phone rang. "That's odd. We're surrounded by mountains. How can you get signal?" Michael asked.
Arend hurried away from the group and opened his phone. '37 missed calls and messages!?' Arend thought as he began to scroll through them.
- -Airship - -
Tommori had down what he could with the tower parts. All he could do now was cheer on his workers. "We can do this! We have to do this! Arend needs to get these messages!"
"Boss! We've got the power up 3000 times the normal! The generators will only last 73 more seconds!" A Pog called out.
"Alright! Now start hijacking anything and everything you can to get these messages all the way to the South Pole!" Tommori ordered.
[X]
Richard's phone rang shortly afterwards. An old pager in Corenden's bag beeped like crazy. Arend was too busy listening to Kronth's first and original message to care. "…I need you to come back. Cris… Cris is dead. A man from Celestial Rim killed him. Please come back soon. I miss you." Arend brought the phone down from his ear. The date for the message was about 16 days old. Arend sent a simple message back. "Aye."
Richard had received the same messages Arend had. It was the same for Corenden as well. They simultaneously glanced to Arend.
"We're going back." Arend said as he stepped towards the large tree.
The Drive turned itself on, surrounding Arend in a thin haze. "It sounds like your friends are in trouble." Pith said.
"I don't know them too well. I've only met Kronth briefly." Richard replied.
"She sounded very upset." Kathy said.
"She's emotional like that. She's got quite a pair of lungs." Richard replied.
"She cried Richard." Corenden said. "Kronth doesn't cry."
Arend set the Dragon Drive aside and dug frantically at the base of the hill. Pith grunted. "If things truly are dire, I can ferry Arend to the city he needs to go to."
"Even Sareville?" Michael asked.
"If I ride the Slipstreams and push myself, I can make it in an hour." Pith replied.
The tremendous crackle of breaking wood distracted them. Arend ripped a gigantic shape from under the tree. Large roots bent as snapped as Arend dragged the five ton mass out from the earth.
"Arend! What are you-!?" Rose started.
Arend stabbed the base of one of the roots with the Dragon Drive. Reversing the Drive at high speed, Arend injected the tree with a massive amount of Orenth. It brought forth hundreds of new roots thicker than he was, and brining the tree to full bloom with flowers larger than Iode.
"I'm taking us home." Arend replie
d as he ripped the Drive out from the tree and punched the hunk of earth he retrieved with the side of his fist.
It vibrated with the sound of metal. The earth coating it fell off in large chunks. A spiny shell was revealed. Decorated like a porcupine, it resembled a pine cone. The bottom was flat, with layers of metal armoring it. A large half-egg shaped dome of glass sat to the front on what resembled a head.
"What is it?" Richard asked.
"One of the first airships. It was meant to fight flying monsters. Mostly Pendragons, Leviathans, and Serephs." Pith replied.
"Give me thirty minutes. Ten to get it working, and twenty to get us there." Arend said as he forced his way in through the rear. Iode ran to help.
"Can he really move us so far so quickly?" Rose asked.
"Those airships were built to be able to fly around the world in three hours. As a Myshcell, he can take it further, perhaps even to the moon." Pith replied. Richard and Corenden were busy looking through the mass of messages. "We can only wait."
[X]
"Hey Zeph! Come check this out!" Kaze called, one of the pilots who flew with Zeph's crew on occasion.
Lave, Sandy, and Zeph had flown down to the mountains to share Arend' knowledge. Zeph peeked at the small screen used to monitor all communications between pilots. A mass of files had forced its way into the system.
"They're all messages and voice mails. It seems like someone is jamming with them on every wavelength. Let's see what's so important." Kaze doubled clicked the first file.
"Arend…" Zeph's ears perked up. He waved Sandy and Lave over. "I need you to come back. Cris…Cris is dead. A man from Celestial Rim killed him. Please reply back soon. I miss you." The computer pinged as a new folder was formed, with a three letter reply. "Aye."
"Get the jets ready Kaze! We've got a place to go! We're burning full and fast!" Zeph ordered as he ran to where his jet laid scattered.
Kaze typed something in jokingly. "Silver Serephs ready to rock n' roll!" He was surprised to get a response.
"Who are you?"
[X]
"Do you know who the Silver Serephs are?" Richard asked.
"They were a group of Serephs who flew jets. Why and how do you know their name?" Michael asked. Richard flashed his phone.
"Three minutes guys!" Iode announced.
"It seems everyone is getting these messages. Whoever they are, they're willing to help." Richard said as he shut his phone and loaded up with all the luggage he could.
Michael helped him with the rest, dumping it inside the large cargo bay in the airship. Corenden and the others loaded up in the cock pit. Rose gave a farewell to Pith and Kathy before she ran to join everyone. Iode shut the large cargo door with the hydraulics he had to repair. Arend' forced entry came at quite a cost in time for repairs.
Everyone strapped down into the seats of the airship. The Captain's chair was left to Arend. Corenden took the controls for the ship. He had no problems since everything was within his reach.
"Everything clear for launch Captain!?" Corenden stood at attention as Arend sat down.
Arend laughed briefly. "Everyone strapped in and ready to go?" Arend asked. He received a round of nods. "Let's go!"
Corenden engaged the airship's engines. The tips of the metal quills of the ship began to glow red. Two claw-like appendages broke off from the sides of the ship, attached by hydraulic joints near the center/rear of the ship. They pushed off from the ground. The entire ship lurched before the forces that drove the airship took full control. They shot skyward in an instant, breaking a few branches on the way.
Pith watched them disappear from sight in a tail of Orenth high in the sky. He looked down at Kathy. "Do you think we should follow?" He asked.
She glanced up at him. "Of course you fool!" She exclaimed. Pith hunkered down. Like she had many times before, Kathy hopped up onto the base of his neck. "Let's go go go!" She exclaimed as Pith took to the air with two massive wings. The Dragon Valley was slowly being covered in the colorful petals of the blooming tree.
"This is insane!" Corenden exclaimed as he struggled to keep control of the airship.
"Retract the landing gear!" Michael exclaimed, flipping a toggle.
The airship shook wildly before they finally stabilized. "What landing gear?" Corenden asked, glancing at Michael.
"Aqua and Aegith taught me much about airships. This model has what appears as clawed hands to either side of the ship. That's what pushed us of the ground before we ascended." Michael explained.
"Now's not the time guys." Arend said, standing up.
"What's up?" Corenden asked as Arend joined him at the controls.
"We're losing power." Iode replied, tapping the readout at his position.
Michael was at the co-pilot's position, Iode at the engine and stability controls, Richard was at navigation and Rose was at the weapons.
"Yes. It would seem the systems weren't built to last half a millennium." Arend said as he surveyed each and every one of the readouts. He let out a sigh. "God damn it." He grabbed the Dragon Drive as he headed out from the cockpit.
"Where are you going!?" Michael called back.
"I've got to go outside and fix the power problem." Arend replied.
Arend found a maintenance ladder that led to the top of the airship. Forcing the door open into the wild winds, Arend immediately found the problem. Numerous cables were flapping in the air, disconnected from their junction. They left a trail of Orenth behind them. Every section of quills past it was able to catch a bit of the Orenth, but not close to enough for them to operate to full functionality.
Arend had no choice to climb out for a drastic solution. He climbed out onto the top of the ship. He was cloaked in white flames. The wind blew around him with little resistance. He hurried down to where the cables were loose. He held the Dragon Drive in his teeth as he snagged the loose cables. He twisted them back together and pinned them down with his foot. Taking the Dragon Drive in two hands, he drove it through each of the newly bundled cables and the junction box at the same time.
The response was immediate. The quills lit up fully, making the airship look like a flaming porcupine. They rapidly picked up speed. Arend braced himself. 'This is probably the stupidest thing I've done.' Arend thought as he brought his hand down on his Drive. "Overclock!"
"What the hell!?" Iode exclaimed back in the cockpit.
"What now?" Michael asked.
Iode grinned. "We're at ten times normal power."
Corenden grinned as well. "I can only wonder what he did. Strap back down! I don't think he's coming back anytime soon!"
Michael returned to his seat and buckled in. "Here we go!" Corenden turned the power up to maximum.
Everyone was thrown back as the airship accelerated. There was a loud boom as the airship broke the sound barrier. They continued to accelerate to ever increasing speeds.
"We're already nearing Yitkin!" Richard called out. "Pull us up already!"
"I can't do that!" Corenden yelled back. "With the current power we have going into the system, we can't go any higher above sea level or we'll begin to go too fast to slow down!"
Richard frowned. "Then I guess Tommori's in for one hell of a wakeup call."
[X]
Tommori looked up at the fried cell tower. "You really did some damage." One of his workers said as he joined him.
"I know. But at least Arend was able to confirm that he got our messages." Tommori replied.
The Pog's ears twitched. He glanced over to the horizon. Since the foundries hadn't been working for a long time, the air was clear. "He look, what is that?" He asked, pointing Tommori towards a dot on the horizon.
Tommori glanced over. No sooner than he did, the airship passed within five hundred feet of the plateau. In the same instant, it disappeared on its way to Sareville. The city was paralyzed as the effects of the shockwave hit a few seconds later.
"Holy hell!" Tommori exclaimed as he covered his ears.
; "How much do you wanna bet that was Arend?" The Pog asked.
Tommori smiled. "There's no doubt about that!"
[X]
"Sareville's in sight!" Richard called out.
"Is that smoke?" Michael said, pointing to the rising pillar of black in the distance.