“Thank Chrystos you showed up,” Eric said. “There were so many of them, trying to keep up… and I’d killed perhaps a half-dozen from the flames of Margol before you arrived. It felt like a never-ending amount.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Yeva said, shooting Eric a huge smile and a wink.
“In any case, though, we have to get the citizens off that one boat,” Eric said. “It’s not that big, so—”
“We have to get all of them out of here,” Zelda said. “It’s going to take days to sail across the seas. There’s no way all of these ships will make it across. I… I have to teleport all of them to Mathos.”
Eric, to Zelda’s surprise, didn’t seem to express doubt. Instead, he looked more curious, his hand on his chin, as if trying to figure out a way to do it. Open minded. Why is that so rare in Hydor?
“You have that power?”
“Not now,” Zelda said. “But with Bahamut’s essence, I believe I can.”
“No point in waiting, especially now that Ragnor’s gone,” Eric said. “Yeva and I will protect the ships. You fly north to Bahamut and do what—”
A massive, town-destroying explosion to the north interrupted them. All three pairs of eyes above and all faces on the ships below turned to the north. Zelda didn’t see any fire or smoke where Mathos had been. If not the town… then what?
But the cracking continued. Zelda raised Emera to the skies and gasped at what she saw.
Ragnor had made good on its promise.
It was shattering the world of Hydor.
“Oh my Chrystos,” she gasped.
Eric and Yeva rose up to meet her, and Yeva screamed. Eric swore quietly as he took in the horrifying sight.
In the far distance, along the ridges of the mountains that bordered Mathos on the west, Ragnor used some sort of magic and physical strength to split the mountain range apart. Water flooded into the newly open area while trees, wildlife, and debris tumbled into the opening newly formed.
“If you will not let me take this world in peace, humans, then I will make sure you cannot have it either,” Ragnor said. “I am the destroyer of worlds. I am the apocalypse! I am your god now!”
“Ragnor!” Zelda yelled, preparing herself to cast magic.
“Don’t chase it,” Eric said.
It sounded like the hardest thing Eric had ever said, the way his voice wavered.
“We’ll never catch up to the dragon, and it’ll just work his way back around to destroy the fleet below us. We have to remain to protect it.”
Zelda could barely hear him over the planet-altering destruction Ragnor produced. The cracking never ended, and when she looked down, she could see the ships being moved forward against their will, following the waters which flooded toward the new opening, the new divide, the new river of chaos.
In the far, far distance, Ragnor disappeared from view. But the sounds that it produced from altering the face of the planet did not end, only faded.
“What did we get ourselves into,” Yeva said.
It wasn’t said with fear. In a way, she almost sounded in awe.
Zelda couldn’t blame her. Not with what Ragnor had just demonstrated. Literally the shaper of worlds. It’s not just humanity that depends on us. It’s the planet.
“Come on,” Eric said. “We watch this, we’ll just lose our morale. Let’s stay close to the ships. Let’s start by flying people off the sunken ship to the other ones. It’s a temporary solution.”
“Agreed,” Yeva said, already dropping her dragon down.
Zelda didn’t immediately follow. She had become too transfixed on the actions of Ragnor.
“Zelda!” Eric yelled.
Only then did Zelda follow suit, and the three dragons perched on the edge of the ship, by now about a fourth of the way sunk. By Zelda’s estimation, they had about three hours to get everyone across—plenty of time, but not one to waste.
“We’re going to transport you to the nearest ship,” Eric said to the townsfolk, some crying but a surprising portion of them already calm and accepting. “You’ll have to get on the back of these dragons. We can take about five people at a time. It’s going to get crowded, but that’s the condition we have to accept.”
No one fought Eric’s orders. No one bothered to fight that a mage helped them. No one questioned the decision, not when the alternative involved getting in the water.
The women and children went first, and with the small ship, they only had to make about four trips, each one lasting less than three minutes, to get all of the women and children to safety. The civilian men went next, and again only a few trips were necessary.
Finally, the soldiers mounted the dragons. Zelda and Emera perched last, having fallen behind Eric and Yeva due to their smaller size. Three guards swung their legs over Emera and held on tight.
“You’re Zelda, correct?” the guard closest to her asked.
Zelda nodded. She saw no point in lying now. To kill her would only lead to their deaths in the sea, but even still, she shuddered a bit, remembering all the ways soldiers had tried to kill her.
“I’m sorry,” the guard said. “For everything that we ever did to you. I… I never questioned the emperor’s orders. I just did what I was told to do. I know that’s not good enough.”
Zelda had no idea how to respond. She appreciated the apology but also felt she needed a powerful response that went beyond “It’s OK.”
But she didn’t have anything. She had too much else to worry about.
“We’ll work to make it better,” the guard continued after an awkward pause of a couple of seconds. “Anything we can do to help.”
“I… umm, just keep the people safe,” Zelda said. Words slowly came to her, but it still felt very unusual. “That’s what we’ve sought to do. Keep the people safe. We can figure out the rest later.”
“Anything you say,” the guard said. “You’ve kept us safe. You and the boy, no, the leader.”
The leader. Even they see him as that. It’s a good title, one befitting him.
“Thanks,” Zelda said, forcing a small smile.
She reached the last boat and dropped the three guards off. She nodded to the guard who had spoken to her.
And then the cracking of the earth picked up in volume.
“Zelda!”
Eric’s cry quickly brought Emera back to the skies. She turned around and saw the distant outline of Ragnor coming from the west.
This time, it had begun splitting the continent where Dabira had sat from the west to the east. No man, as far as Zelda knew, had ever trekked west and then north from Dabira, exploring an area that she had seen from afar but had never ventured to.
Now, no man ever would by foot.
“Hahaha!” Ragnor laughed, the taunting a continuous reminder to the dragon riders of its presence. “I have recreated this world! Hydor shall become set in the disjointed image of Iblis!”
“Stay here,” Eric said, but Zelda could see even he had become enraged and vulnerable to impulsive action.
But it didn’t seem to matter, because Ragnor advanced on the three of them, the beast’s eyes narrowed. It had no other dragons with it, but Ragnor alone could easily wipe out their fleet even as the three hunters sought to quell it.
But about thirty seconds before it would have collided with the three riders, it paused. It did a quick bank to the left before coming back around, hovering in place.
“You have found a way to damage me, and I must admit to underestimating you,” Ragnor said. “A foolish mistake on my part. Had I known what to expect, I would have squashed you. But no matter. I shall return to where I came from to heal, and when I return, there will not be a fight, only annihilation.”
It laughed some more. Zelda tightened her hands on the neck of Emera, as if she might fight. The way the dragon spoke, she considered it more seriously by the second.
“Of course, you may join me if you like, but I would not recommend it. I will bring the battle to you
in Mathos. Good luck, humans. You will need it, for not even Chrystos can save you now!”
The dragon flew back south, but not before using its wings to create a series of waves that rocked the boats. The citizens of Caia, thankfully, kept low to the boat, and Zelda did not see anyone go overboard.
As soon as the danger subsided, Zelda got the attention of Eric and Yeva.
“I have to go, now,” she said. “To get Bahamut’s essence.”
She barely waited for acknowledgment from Eric and Yeva. She saw their nods of approval only out of the corner of her eye as she had Emera charge to the north, moving like a shooting star across the afternoon sky.
She soared through the air, and though she tried her best to ignore the damage that Ragnor had wrought, she could not avert her eyes. The area just days before that had looked like serene mountains now had given way to utter chaos. Birds flew in haphazard patterns and screeched seemingly at random. The smaller, wild dragons flew about, bellowing in confusion and anger at the destruction of their home. The water rushed into the newly formed valley—a valley that seemed to stretch outward an impossible length, even for Ragnor’s size—and still, rocks and cliffs broke off and fell. The destructive moment had passed, but the fallout still continued.
When Zelda looked north after flying for what felt like an hour, she saw she hadn’t even picked the right part of the land. The great mountain to the north had moved to the western continent now. She could only hope that in the process of splitting the world in half, Ragnor had not taken a detour to destroy the remains of Bahamut.
Upon coming close enough, Zelda had Emera fold her wings in and dive for the resting spot. She did not want to waste a single moment. The flooding water might take away Bahamut, making it impossible for her to ever get the essence of the dragon.
Fortunately, not even a single drop of it had reached that valley.
She kept her focus singularly on the corpse of Bahamut. She could not help, though, the glimpses of those who had fallen during battle. Artemia. Abe. Tetra. Only Romarus’ remains weren’t visible, perched atop the cliff behind her, not within the valley. She knew someday she would give all who fought with her a proper burial, but that day was not today or tomorrow.
When she landed, she had Emera sit between her and the bodies of the humans. She approached Bahamut and saw the opening in its chest. Fresh blood still soaked the rim of the opening, and she would have to dig through the rib cage to reach it. She grimaced in disgust, but knew what she had to do.
She moved forward, putting one foot in the chest cavity. It produced a gross squishing sound that she tried her best to ignore. She took a second step in, the sound still giving her shivers.
She put a hand on the ribcage, wondering if Bahamut might suddenly awaken and kill her with its claws. But the lungs, visible from here, did not take in any air. Blood did not flow from the dragon. If it came to life, Chrystos would’ve had to do it himself—an unlikely move given that Zelda was on his side, not Iblis’.
She tried to pull on the ribs, but that felt like a stupid maneuver that wasted time. She knew what she’d have to do.
“Sorry, Chrystos,” she mumbled.
She used her ice spell to make the ribs brittle. She then cast a quick lightning spell that broke the ribs off, clearing the way for the essence.
The essence glowed almost a golden color. She paused as it glittered.
The power I’ll have will make me indestructible to everything that isn’t Ragnor. I…
I have to destroy this when I finish. If I can’t destroy this, then… I don’t know. But this is going to be too much power.
She moved closer to the essence. Even at a distance, she could feel its power, which dwarfed that from Indica. She began to hear voices, some of which she recognized—Garo’s, Tetra’s—and others which she did not. One of them sounded like a husky female voice, one sounded like her own, one sounded like a young boy’s, and another still sounded… like Chrystos? Whose voices are these? What are they saying?
She paused when she’d gotten in range to touch the crystal. The voices had grown louder. They threatened to overwhelm her mind, make it impossible to even think. They told her to take it, to save the world. Then they questioned her. Asked her why she would do this. Then they warned her. Then they scolded her.
There seemed no rhyme or reason to the words. She couldn’t listen to them, not any more.
She put her hand out. The voices stopped when she was about three inches away from touching the golden essence of Bahamut.
The silence felt eerie. Where had they gone? Where had they come from?
She swallowed. She had to do it.
She lunged her hand for the crystal. She screamed as the surge of power consumed her, almost as if she was becoming one with the crystal. If the power of Indica had felt like a warm crawl across her body, this felt like a flood of lava swallowing her. She sought to fight the crystal, but she could not do such a thing.
Her mind went blank and her eyes closed—she did not control shutting them—and in place of the white vision, she saw the same visions as before, except this time with more clarity.
The first vision had shown her raining down columns of fire. Now, she saw a little more clearly—she could see she was destroying a town. But why?
Her second vision showed her something she had already accomplished. A ferocious blast of ice had devastated what remained of Dabira, but it also saved her life and the lives of Tetra and Yeva and, briefly, Garo. She saw it just as it had happened.
Her next vision showed her bringing down lightning from clouds so dark she could not differentiate them in color from Bahamut’s scales. The lightning struck multiple dragons. Zelda thought she saw dragon riders falling from them, but even with the essence of Bahamut, the vision did not come perfectly clear.
The next showed her blasting an army of men off their feet with her wind. The guards looked an awful lot like the guards of the Syrast Empire, but that had already fallen. Was she seeing what could be? Was she seeing the definitive future? An alternative past?
But the image faded in favor of more, the ones she remembered having a clearer, more defined picture.
She saw the burly hand holding her up by the neck. She knew what this was. Once more, it was the destruction of Dabira.
Her second vision showed her on top of a cliff, screaming at a woman staring down Bahamut. What I just saw. Eric and I arriving in time to fight Artemia.
Then the visions came which she had no understanding of yet.
The first one showed her in a cave. Frosting covered the walls and ground. In front of her, two girls, one that looked about a decade older, one about four years older than Zelda, stood in front of her. The older one had a sword in her hand that was not pointed at Zelda but held in a position to strike. Behind them, two young boys, one wearing regal clothing and the other a very tall boy in simple clothes, stood watching.
And behind them, Zelda swore she saw Ragnor. It was too fuzzy to say for sure, and the beast didn’t have the facial structure that the Ragnor she had just seen. But on size alone, it at least seemed possible.
“Why?” the younger girl said.
But before Zelda could respond or even contemplate the question, that vision faded.
In the final vision, she found herself in a void. She remembered this vision from when she consumed Indica’s power, and she now had an idea of what it was.
To her left, she saw Chrystos. But then she realized perhaps, no, it wasn’t Chrystos. This being had massive wings, bright blue eyes, and a burning blue fire from its hands, covered in black scales. Chrystos didn’t have those features—right? He certainly didn’t have scales.
To her right, though, she almost certainly saw Iblis. The two horns, the red eyes, the fire dancing around its body—surely, she saw the representation of all that was evil here.
“At last, the girl has joined us,” Iblis said. “We wondered when that might happen. When you would come to us.”
/> Iblis laughed and lunged. Zelda saw the other being lunge for her. Zelda screamed and scooted back.
Then, in an instant, she was back in Hydor, scooting away from the crystal, on the ground of Hydor. She screamed and tripped as she ran back.
She gasped for air as she rolled on her back and looked up to the sky. Those visions had terrified her, now that she knew what to expect. Why was her fire spell burning an entire town? Why was she grounding dozens of dragons at once? Who were those two girls? Who was that figure in her last vision that wasn’t Iblis?
What did this mean for her? Was she even seeing visions from her perspective? A couple of them, sure, but what about the rest?
She swallowed and panted, trying to collect herself. She couldn’t know the answer right now, not without a lot of meditation, silence, and time. She had to finish the job that she had come here for. She had to collect the essence of Bahamut—and, perhaps, the essence of Chrystos.
She slowly rose, cautious of another vision that would blind her. Once she felt confident such a thing would not come, she moved inside the dragon once more, ignoring the sounds that had become background noise to her. As she approached the crystal, the voices stopped once more. Nothing but the distant winds of Hydor filled her ears.
She gulped as she came back within range of grabbing the crystal. Would she suffer the same visions once more? Would they show her destroying things? Were these prophecies destined to come true, or just the worst-case scenario for her?
She took a deep breath and quickly moved her hands forward. She grabbed the crystal and yanked back on it quickly, holding it tight to her chest.
Nothing happened. She waited several seconds. Maybe Bahamut would awaken. Maybe the crystal would destroy her. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
But nothing happened. She caught her breath and moved outside.
Emera awaited her about ten feet away. Her dragon rested calmly, raising its head upon Zelda’s emergence. It got on its feet, preparing to fly at Zelda’s command.
Just before Zelda mounted her, though, she heard voices.
“Zelda,” it said. “You have my essence. I can speak to you for a time as no magi ever has.”
Legends of the War (War of the Magi Book 3) Page 31