The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons

by Virlyce

  “Thank you,” Exzenter said through clenched teeth. “Save my room in Konigreich for me. I’ll be back.” His bloody body disappeared from the four’s grasp and reappeared on top of Johann. A moment later, the courtyard vanished, leaving a crater in the ground. Wind howled as it rushed in to fill the empty void.

  ***

  “Crap!” Charon shouted as his book dropped to the floor. “I was supposed to stop myself today!” His naked body vanished and reappeared on the roof behind Lindyss’ group. His eyes narrowed as his gaze landed on the crater. “Well damn. I screwed up.” He sighed.

  The four turned around to face him. “What do you mean you screwed up?” Lindyss asked the naked man. “And what are you even doing here?” Her brow furrowed. “And where’s your clothes?”

  Charon let out another sigh and shook his head. “I was supposed to stop myself from teleporting Johann to Fuselage. It’s too late now. The fact that I’m still here is proof of that. Ah, I really messed up.”

  “Speak clearly, you crazy old man,” Grimmy said as he flicked Charon’s forehead, causing the frail man to tumble and roll over backwards.

  Charon rubbed his forehead. “I am Exzenter,” he said as he picked himself off the floor. “I didn’t just teleport Johann to Fuselage. I brought him back in time too.” Charon raised one hand as Lindyss started to speak. “Hear me out before you speak, please. The humans fled from the continent of Trummer 800 years ago because of me.

  “After I brought Johann to Fuselage, I teleported as far away as I could. I got away from him, but the soldiers who came with me weren’t as lucky.” Charon sighed. “You’ll have to forgive me if I forget a few things; it’s been over a thousand years and a lot has happened since then. I encountered the city of Verderb after wandering around Trummer. There were a lot of interesting creatures there: phoenixes, manticores, behemoths, giant praying mantises. Well, they’re still there but just corrupted and all wiggly. The plants there were huge and plentiful with great restorative properties. Oh, there was so much to learn.” Charon coughed. “Ah, I’m getting sidetracked.

  “Anyways, I managed to convince the citizens of Verderb that Johann was a threat, and they responded. The king sent out waves of soldiers to stop him. Their weaponry was much more advanced than ours, but they didn’t rely on magic as much—only faith. They fought an endurance battle with Johann and destroyed all the replicating worms and their hosts. Eventually, the region they contained Johann in was drained of mana and he, along with the parasites, became progressively weaker.

  “The king ordered the destruction of Johann and all the worms, but one of the princes had other plans. He pretended to follow the king’s orders and buried Johann’s body in a casing of orichalcum while keeping the worms for himself. By that point, the worms were so weak that they couldn’t fully control a human body even after digging inside of them. He planted them in anyone who opposed him and used their madness as an excuse to have them executed or locked up.”

  Tafel frowned. “You didn’t stop him?”

  Charon creased his brow. “If I had known back then what I know now, then we wouldn’t be in this position,” he said and scratched his chin. “I was also a bit preoccupied with all the new species of animals and plants around me, but that’s beside the point. That prince became king and used the worms to ensure the security of his reign. Eventually, it became the collective secret of the upper echelons. One day, someone messed up and the worms were set free, starting from the center of the capital. It spread outwards, and no one could stop it since the king had undermined the strength of the kingdom to ensure his own sovereignty. People panicked and cities fell. The beasts on Trummer became infected when they ate humans or other infected beasts.

  “Eventually, humanity was backed into a city on the coast, Fuselage. The only reason it held was because of the crystals—I call them Spirit Tears—which were able to maintain a barrier against the worms. They’re the same crystals the humans use now to summon their ancestors’ spirits by the way. I set up a portal and had the non-combatants flee to this continent along with a few commanders who I knew were strong enough to establish a foothold against the elves. I established rules for teleporting to and from Fuselage to ensure the worms wouldn’t be able to travel to Zuer, but I must’ve failed somewhere along the way because, clearly, worms made it across and infected Johann.”

  Vur tilted his head as his brow furrowed. “So the worms that infected Johann … were the ancestors of themselves?”

  “Precisely,” Charon said and nodded. “If I didn’t teleport Johann to Fuselage, then the worms would never have existed, thus eliminating the need to teleport Johann to Fuselage. But I was too late to stop myself.”

  “Aah,” Tafel said and exhaled. “I don’t get it. Where does that put us now?”

  Lindyss crossed her arms across her chest. “We have to find out where the worms are coming from. The last outbreak was when I almost destroyed Niffle and the demons released the worms, but that was ten years ago,” she said and frowned. “How is it that only Johann became infected? What happened here?”

  “Vur! Help…”

  The group standing on top of the roof peered over the edge. Lillian was lying on her belly, hanging over a horse’s saddle. A trail of blood was left behind as the horse moved forwards. Vur frowned and jumped off the roof, landing in front of the horse. He placed his hand on Lillian’s back, and a breeze encircled her, illuminating the wounds on her back with a green light.

  Lillian sat up with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Paul… Michelle…,” she said as her voice cracked. “They’re dead. Y-you have to resurrect them before their souls leave their bodies. Please.”

  “What happened?” Vur asked as he grasped Lillian’s arm. “Weren’t you near the temple?”

  Lillian’s body trembled as she shook her head. “It was Trent. He used some sort of magic to make the spirit disappear, and then he knocked the pope out. He killed Michelle and Paul after you four left,” she said through sniffles. “He almost killed me too, but my grandfather’s ring helped preserve my life. Trent took Rudolph and the pope. I tried to find a healer, but everyone had already fled the area because of the dragon.”

  “I’ll save them,” Vur said and turned towards Grimmy. “I need a ride.”

  Grimmy glanced at Lindyss before scooping her up along with Charon and Tafel. “We can figure out the worm thing later; let’s save Vur’s friends first.”

  Lindyss frowned as they flew towards the temple. “The only resurrection magic I know is reanimating the dead.” She poked Tafel. “I don’t suppose you know any?”

  Tafel shook her head.

  “I can do it,” Vur said. “I learned it from Juliana when she thought she killed me.”

  ***

  A fairy with magenta-colored hair was sitting outside of a cave, eating a berry. Metal bars with blue runes covered the cave’s entrance. Two fairies were lying face down in the makeshift prison with shackles attached to their ankles and wrists. The magenta-haired fairy raised her head as an amber-haired fairy approached her from the skies. “Oh? I’m off guard duty already?” she asked as she placed the rest of the berry into her mouth. She stood up and stretched her arms above her head.

  “Any change?” the amber-haired fairy asked as she landed in front of the entrance.

  “Nope. They haven’t moved since I got here.”

  “They’re not dead, right?” the amber-haired fairy asked as she peered through the bars at the red and blue-haired fairies lying on the ground. They looked dead.

  “Not possible. They couldn’t die even if they wanted to,” the magenta-haired fairy replied as she glanced at the chains holding Rella and Bella. They were pulsating with a sky-blue light. “Have fun watching over them.” She laughed and flew into the air.

  The amber-haired fairy snorted and sat in the chair as the other fairy disappeared into the distance. A crack formed beneath the fairy’s chair, and she tilted her head before inspecting her feet. A worm sho
t out of the ground and pierced through her abdomen before she could react. Her body convulsed as she opened her mouth to scream, but no sounds came out. She lay on the floor, twitching for a few moments, before she stood up with unfocused eyes. She turned towards the cave entrance with saliva leaking from her mouth.

  Rella was awakened by the sounds of crunching metal. Her eyes fluttered open. A fairy was crouched over her arm, eating the chains of her manacles. A shiver passed over her body, and the eating fairy froze. Saliva dropped to the ground as she stared at Rella. A long moment passed before the fairy continued to chew on the chains. Rella’s lips cracked as a corner of her mouth twitched. A chain has more mana than me, huh? Her eyes shut as she lost consciousness.

  37

  Rella opened her eyes. Her lips cracked when she inhaled after peeling her tongue off the roof of her mouth. I’m alive? Her head flopped to the left. Bella was lying next to her, unmoving. Rella groaned as she sat up. The remaining bits of her manacles that hadn’t been eaten fell off her wrists with a clinking sound.

  “Bella,” Rella said and leaned over the blue-haired fairy’s body. She shook her sister’s shoulders. “Wake up, Bella. Please, wake up.” She took her fingers and placed them along Bella’s neck, feeling for a pulse. After a moment passed, she heaved a sigh of relief. Though faint, there was still a heartbeat. Rella removed her hand and glanced around.

  The metal bars with the runic inscriptions that had previously blocked the entrance to the cave were gone—only a faint trace of metal residue remained. The chains and manacles on the two fairies’ bodies were reduced to a similar state of decay. Rella picked up her shattered manacle. There were teeth marks on the broken edges. The image of the amber-haired fairy eating the chains appeared in her head, and a chill ran down her spine.

  “R-Rella?”

  Rella whipped her head around and stared at Bella. “Bella! We have to get out of here,” she said and helped Bella to her feet.

  “We’re free?” Bella asked. Her eyes widened. “Is this a trap?” She shoved Rella over and retreated backwards until her body collided with the cave wall behind her.

  “You stupid nit!” Rella said as she picked herself off the floor. “I’m not a trap. One of the tertiaries messed up and got infected by those worms.”

  Bella shivered. “You know what happened the last time we tried to escape,” she said as tears formed in the corner of her eyes. “I don’t want to go through that again.”

  Rella crossed her arms over her chest. “This is the only chance we’re going to get,” she said. “I saw the infected tertiary with my own eyes. Come on.” She extended her hand towards Bella.

  Bella trembled but took Rella’s hand.

  Rella nodded. “Let’s go. We need to tell someone about the worms. We have to find Vur. He can stop Mom.”

  ***

  “Where’s Roy?” Vur asked Lillian. He was standing over Michelle in the altar room, wiping the sweat off his brow. Behind him, Paul let out a groan as his eyes twitched. Grimmy had lifted the roof of the temple off the building and was peeking inside. Tafel held Floofykins in her lap as she watched Vur work, unwilling to take her gaze off of him.

  Lillian shook her head. “I don’t know where Roy went. Trent attacked me after Paul and Michelle.” She clutched her shoulders and shuddered.

  “Who’s Trent?” Lindyss asked as she inspected the altar in the temple. She took the bowl that held the remains of the crystals used to summon the spirits.

  “He was one of the winners of the competition,” Lillian said. “He was the second-place warrior.”

  “Did you notice anything strange about him?” Lindyss asked as she rummaged through the rubble.

  Lillian shook her head. “I never met him before, so I wouldn’t know. And we didn’t see the competition either because we were … preoccupied. He seemed normal—wait. His eyes. When he stabbed me, they looked like Stella’s.”

  The rock in Lindyss’ hand turned to dust as she made a fist. “Stella?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at Lillian.

  Lillian took a step back and gulped. “Yeah. Stella was a warrior in the competition, but she lost in the first round. Her eyes were reptilian and they kept changing colors. It felt like they could see through to your soul.”

  The floor underneath Lindyss shattered. “I see,” she said with a tight smile. “This may be a bigger problem than I thought.”

  “What do you mean?” Charon asked. He had ‘borrowed’ a set of priest robes to cover his naked body.

  “The queen of the fairies kidnapped the pope and the crown prince,” Lindyss said. “And somehow, the crown prince’s dragon gets infected by parasites at the same time.” Lindyss chewed on her lip.

  “So the fairy queen has access to the worms?” Charon asked with a frown. His brow creased. “Didn’t you sell her off around four centuries ago? I vaguely remember taking part in that.”

  Lindyss nodded. “That’s the problem. I wouldn’t put it past her to breed the worms and unleash them all over this continent. We’ll have to let the humans, demons, and elves know about this. I don’t suppose you have a way of stopping the worms?”

  Charon nodded. “I do, in fact,” he said and stroked his chin. “You can squish them easily as long as they don’t have a host.”

  “And if they do have a host?” Lindyss asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Charon shrugged. “Tear them apart with orichalcum.”

  “Isn’t that what they did in Trummer when Johann first arrived?”

  “Correct.”

  “And now Trummer is completely overrun except for Fuselage, right?”

  “That is also correct.”

  “Goddammit, Exzenter. What the hell have you been doing for the past millennium?” Lindyss asked as she kicked the time mage. “You seriously banked the future of the world on you stopping yourself?”

  Charon made a face. “It was a good bet; after all, I got to spend a thousand years studying to my heart’s content. If I was going to stop existing after I stopped myself, then of course I wanted to know how everything in the world worked. What would you have done if you knew you were going to vanish after a thousand years?”

  Lindyss sighed. “Get out,” she said and rubbed her temples. “I don’t need your existentialist nonsense right now. Bring the king and his advisors to Konigreich. A meeting needs to be held.”

  “I can bring the demons,” Tafel said as she stood up.

  “Alright,” Lindyss said. “We will—” She stopped talking and frowned.

  Tafel tilted her head. “Did something happen?”

  Lindyss creased her brow. “A squad of skeletons was just eliminated by a group of infected fairies. Stella’s making her move. She was hiding right under our noses on the border between the three nations. My bats located a series of underground caves that must’ve been hidden with illusion magic.”

  “Infected fairies? Like by the worm things you were talking about?” Lillian asked.

  Lindyss nodded.

  Lillian’s face blanched. “The Leonis household is stationed on the border. My grandfather’s there.”

  “Then we better hurry,” Lindyss said.

  ***

  The pope opened his eyes. A pair of speckled reptilian irises stared down at him. “Finally awake?” a feminine voice asked through Trent’s mouth. “I was wondering how long you were going to sleep for.”

  The pope tried to sit up but found himself unable to move. His body was strapped to a table, bands of orange metal wrapped around his wrists, ankles, neck, and chest. “You’re not Trent,” the pope said as his body shivered. A breeze rolled over him, and he realized he was naked.

  “What makes you say that?” Trent asked, his voice still high-pitched and lilting. “What makes a human a person? What makes Trent Trent? His body? His thoughts?” A silver knife glinted in Trent’s hand as he traced its edge along the contours of the pope’s body.

  “You!” The pope narrowed his eyes. A white rune appeared on his foreh
ead and webs of light appeared on his body.

  “Oops,” Trent said as the knife’s blade disappeared into the pope’s torso. He flashed a smile. “Can’t have you doing that right now.”

  The light on the pope’s body faded as the rune disappeared. He coughed as a trickle of blood leaked out the corner of his mouth. He grunted. “Who are you?”

  Trent licked his lips as he turned his back on the pope and selected another knife from the table behind him. “I’m just a nobody,” he said. “Forgotten for a few centuries. Completely and utterly forgotten.” His eyes reddened as he stabbed the knife downwards, leaving a gouge in the table. He whipped his head around to face the pope, eyes wide. “But not for long. Soon, no one will be able to forget my name.” He crouched and pulled a bucket out from underneath the table.

  The pope’s eyes shifted downwards. His skin crawled. There was a mass of wriggling worms devouring each other inside the bucket. A groan escaped from his mouth as he asked, “Why?”

  Trent smiled at the worms as they wriggled just underneath his face. “Why? No real reason,” he said and gently rocked the bucket. “Maybe revenge against the person who took everything from me.”

  “I never did anything to you,” the pope said. His eyes widened as Trent reached into the bucket and pulled out a worm. “I can help you.”

  Trent sauntered over to the pope with the worm’s body thrashing against his arm. “You’re right. You didn’t do anything to me,” he said and nodded. The pope let out a slow exhale. “Just like everyone else. They completely ignored my existence, content with me being the sacrifice. No one spoke up. No one did anything. Just. Like. You.”

  The pope shrieked as the worm entered the sole of his foot and crawled towards his heart. Trent stared, expression unchanging, as the pope’s body convulsed and thrashed against its bindings. Trent turned his head away from the pope and locked his gaze onto a figure in the corner of the room.