by Eric Vall
There was no way in hell I was going to let that happen.
Laika, Alyona, and I made it back to the city at dawn, and a group of warriors were waiting for us at the main gate. Laika helped Alyona off my back, and while Alyona’s shuddering had lessened throughout the flight back, her face was even paler than it was before.
“Find Natalya,” I ordered the warriors who surrounded us as I lowered my head to their height. “Tell her you need the orichalum armor and weapons she made in order to fight the demons who are threatening the city. Once you’re armored, head to the entrance of the Crimson Canyons. You won’t be able to miss it.”
I hid the bitterness I felt as I gave them their orders. I was their lord, and I needed to show just how capable I was even in this sort of horrible situation. In all likelihood, they probably thought I’d ordered them to their deaths. There was no way in hell I’d let that happen, though. I’d heal every single one of them before they died. There was no way we were going to lose, I just had to believe we wouldn’t.
Even if it was thousands of demons against us.
“Find one of the Elders and pass on the message to them,” Laika added as Alyona leaned on her. “Tell them to prepare for any eventuality. Get all the women and children on board and have the airship ready to leave at a moment’s notice. If we fail, there won’t be a Hatra left for us to come back to.”
The warriors from the Blue Tree Guild nodded sternly, already used to the fickleness of fate when it came to life or death situations. They spread out quickly, and they called out separate orders as they prepared for the battle against the incoming demonic horde.
Just how much shittier could our luck get?
If we failed in stopping the demons, Hatra would be destroyed again. The Asuras would become refugees once more, and my people would have lost all hope again, this time without anything to nurture for the future. While the once crumbling walls of the city now stood strong, there was hope for the future and a new day, but the demon gate had cast a shadow of doubt on that dream.
It all came down to timing. If the demon gate had appeared later, even by a week or two, we might have been able to be far more prepared. As it was, we didn’t even have any orichalum in the walls of the city or even the gates. The only fully trained soldiers we had were those from the Blue Tree Guild, and even then I doubted they would be enough against thousands of demons.
We could not fail in stopping the demonic horde, though. Even if it meant giving up our everything, we would stop the rampaging demons. I wasn’t going to let them harm a single one of my people, even if that meant travelling to the netherworld and dethroning every single demon king there was.
I was startled out of my dark thoughts when I felt Alyona’s cool hands on my scales.
“Alyona, what are you doing?” I reared my head back around to look at the princess. “You should stay. If the worst happens and we can’t hold back the demons, you need to live. You’re in no condition to be fighting. If you fall while fighting, that’s gonna put the whole country, maybe even the world, in danger. You should be evacuating on the airship, you’re too important to everyone to risk.”
Determination dripped from Alyona’s voice as she climbed up onto my back. “As the princess of Rahma and heir to the Seat of the White Jade Sect, it is my duty to live my life for my people. Every drop of blood I have in my body is for Rahma. I exist solely to shoulder whatever pain and misfortune threatens my people. How can I run away and hide?”
I let out a soft sigh at her words, and I knew there was nothing I could do to convince Alyona to stay behind. And while all I wanted was for her to be safe from danger, this passion to protect others was one of the reasons I’d fallen in love with her. She wasn’t a damsel in distress just because she wore a metaphorical crown, she would fight alongside Laika and me to protect everything important to us.
“Milady, you can barely sit up,” Laika argued, and her eyes were full of worry as she stared up at Alyona. “You can’t fight in this condition.”
Laika was right. Alyona had slumped forward and was barely keeping her hold on the spikes on my back. Her cheek was flush against my scales, and I could feel her harsh pants. I wished there was something I could do to help Alyona, something to alleviate the pain that had spread throughout her body and sapped her of her strength.
“It doesn’t matter if I can’t fight.” Alyona strengthened her grip on my spikes and pushed herself back into a sitting position. “I must fight. Besides, how will you defeat the demons without me?”
There had to be something I could do, even if it wasn’t a physical injury causing her pain, maybe my healing abilities would be able to soothe her. I pulled forth my healing power and focused it on soothing Alyona. In my mind, I kept the image of everything that calmed me down and whatever could calm anyone down. From hot baths to chamomile tea to lazy summer days, that was what I poured into my healing power.
“Laika, get on,” I ordered as I crouched low to the ground. I knew the moment I was in the air, I needed to let loose the healing power so Alyona wouldn’t slip off during take off, or even worse, mid flight.
The wolf Demi-Human jumped onto my back quickly and had her arms wrapped around Alyona in no time. Then in one swift movement, I rose into the air as I poured my magic into Alyona.
Just as I swung my head around to face her, my healing power rose up through my scales and surrounded Alyona in a pearlescent and glittering glow. Then my sparkling power settled on her hair and skin as it began to fade into her body.
Almost immediately, I could feel as Alyona straightened on my back, and her grip on one of my spikes tightened. I hadn’t needed to breathe my healing power on her, I was able to direct it right into her. Did that mean my control was finally getting better?
“Evan, what did you do?” Alyona patted my scales in curiosity as she raised her voice. “The agony from the shattered seal went away.”
“I just tried to heal you of the pain,” I called out as relief coursed through me. “You couldn’t fight in that condition, so I wanted to see if I could do something to help you recover faster.”
“Well, it worked,” Alyona laughed joyfully, but then she gasped, and I felt her teeter on my back.
“Milady?” Laika shouted in concern. “What’s wrong?”
“The seal,” the princess rasped. “It’s been broken.”
A savage snarl slipped from my maw, and I pumped my wings faster.
Conversation quickly died off as we rose higher into the sky, and we could see the evidence of the demon gate. It was far worse than when I’d first found it. We could pinpoint its exact location all the way from Hatra.
Pure malice and cruelty seeped into the air and dyed the early morning sky with its darkness. I could see the countless dark clouds that swirled above the canyons right where I had found the demon gate. Somehow, I expected the strange lightning from the memories Asher showed me to rain down from the sky.
Almost as if I’d summoned him, Asher’s voice echoed through my head.
Get away! Get away or you’ll die, you’ll all die. You can’t stop them, they are death and malice incarnate.
“I won’t know until I try,” I growled back in my mind to Asher. “I can’t just let them do whatever they want. What if they go after Hatra? Or are going after a city? I know the nearest one is miles away, but I can’t let a threat like this exist when I can do something about it.”
You’ll die. You will all die. You cannot stop them.
“Why are you saying that?” I demanded in my thoughts. “Is it your fear? Because of the miasma that’s kept you prisoner your entire life? Is that why you think we’re going to fail? Because we aren’t, it may not be instantly, but we will win.”
We’ll see. I’ll help you as much as I can, though I doubt it will be of any use against anyone you can’t take down. You did defeat me, after all.
I frowned at Asher’s words and wondered what he meant by helping. He was stuck inside of my spiritual sea, h
ow would he be of any help other than providing me with some potentially annoying commentary?
Whatever, if the strange and slightly depressive swordsman would be able to help me take down a demonic army, I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“They aren’t heading to the city?” Laika’s voice traveled down to my ears and caught my attention.
I looked down to see what she meant and realized there was no horde of bloodthirsty demons heading toward Hatra. We should have come upon some by now if they were.
This was strange, instead of heading in the direction of Hatra, the demons had travelled into the canyons instead. We followed their trampled path by air as we noticed burned and twisted bodies littered the canyon below us.
Something attacked the demons. Could it have been the Crimson Dragon living in the canyon?
Carefully, we followed the trail of burnt demonic corpses further into the canyon. If this was the work of the Crimson Dragon, then she’d easily halved the demon horde. A carpet of corpses covered the canyon floor, and I couldn’t even see any pebbles or stone. Everything was covered in blood and ash.
What awaited us further inside of the canyon was an even more horrible sight.
The Crimson Dragon was curled protectively around an egg as the same monsters I’d seen in Asher’s memories clambered around her. Dark blood seeped from deep wounds along her tail and body, and she snarled and roared in agony each time she was struck. Somehow, the demons had dragged her down from the skies, or they’d attacked the egg she so desperately protected.
“Dragon of Hatra,” the wounded dragon called out to us through the fray of battle, “you owe nothing to me, but I ask for your help. Help me protect this little one!”
A demon swiped at the egg, and the dragon broke off her plea to snarl and snap at the attack. The demon met a swift death between her fangs, and then she curled up even tighter around the egg as more demons bombarded her.
Even if she hadn’t asked me to help her, I would, and I knew the women on my back would as well.
Not to mention, there was no way I was going to leave a dragon egg to be devoured by demons.
If we could buy enough time until the Blue Tree Guild warriors got here, I could land next to the crimson dragon after blowing away as many demons as I could with my wings. Then I’d heal her enough so Alyona could create a portal to take the other dragon and her egg back to safety in Hatra.
But there was something wrong with the situation, the demons almost seemed to be celebrating. I didn’t know much about demons and their ways, but I knew how someone looked when they thought they had won a fight. Even our presence didn’t seem to bother them.
“Alyona!” I called out to the princess on my back. “What are they doing?”
“They’ve done something to her.” Alyona’s power curled protectively around us, and a tendril of it reached down to the fallen dragon. “There’s a curse running through her veins!”
“Fuck!” I gnashed my fangs and glared down at the demons. “Can you break it down from up here?”
“I can’t from here.” Determination dripped from Alyona’s melodic voice as her hands tightened their grip on my spikes. “I can do something, but I have to be closer to her. We have to get to her now, or she and the egg will die.”
I growled in frustration as I kept my eyes on the demons below us. Touching down opened up the possibility of being swarmed by the demons just as the Corrupted Corpses had done to me once. I needed to be careful, and it was too dangerous to use my earth powers against the demons while the wounded dragon was in the way of danger. Only when she was out of the way, and healed, would I’d be able to rampage.
Maybe, just maybe, if I could get close enough but still out of reach, one of us could grab the egg. But I wouldn’t be able to carry the wounded dragon out of reach.
Then I realized that I didn’t have to carry her. I could lift her out of reach on a stone platform using my powers, and Alyona would be able to purify all the demons around her.
“Evan!” Laika’s voice was confident as she shifted on my back. “We can reach them together! Set down away from the demons, and we’ll fight our way through. ”
“No, it’ll be too late.” Agony dripped from Alyona’s voice as her power spiked out around her desperately. “We have to get to them now.”
My platform idea was the only solution I could see where the wounded dragon and her egg would be out of the way of the fighting. It also had the added benefit of keeping Alyona out of the way of the battle, and she’d be able to focus on dealing with whatever was wrong with the wounded dragon without having to worry about being attacked.
“This is going to sound crazy,” I called out to the two women on my back, “but if I create a stone platform and push her up, can you form a barrier and purge the demons close to her? If you have to be inside of the barrier, I can fly as close as possible to the platform.”
“What are you saying?” Laika cried out in confusion and shifted on my back. “You want Milady to jump down there? Into the midst of all those demons?”
“I can do it,” Alyona declared, and confidence and courage filled her melodic voice. “I can jump down and purify the demons around her. A fall from this distance won’t be able to harm me, and the moment the demons touch me, well, they won’t live long enough to regret it.”
“Once you jump, I’ll pull up a platform,” I growled as I swooped as close as I could to the ground without being within the reach of the demons. Then I pooled my power together and focused my senses on the earth underneath the wounded dragon. “I’m going to aim for the moment you touch down so we’ll get as many of those fuckers out in one blow.”
“I’m ready!” Alyona shouted as she stood up on my back. “I’ll clear out as many as I can for you.”
“Alyona,” I called out as I twisted my neck around to stare at her, “no matter what happens, only those demons will die today.”
Alyona smirked. “I can’t die, remember?”
Then, with those words, the priestess let herself fall off my back and into the demonic horde.
Chapter 11
A pale blue barrier exploded all around Alyona, and light pulsed in her hands as she plummeted through the air. The barrier expanded in the form of an orb, and it glittered in the sunlight as if it had been cut from pure crystal.
As Alyona fell through the air, my power raced underneath the wounded dragon and formed a circular platform around her. Then I forced the platform upward so it would meet the falling princess and catch her.
The giant, insect like demons had finally noticed us, but they were focused on the falling Alyona. They clamored and chittered loudly, almost like cicadas in summer, as they climbed on top of the fallen dragon to try and reach the priestess. It was as if they were moths, and she was the fire that would burn them to ashes.
Her purity, while serving as a beacon for their repugnant appetite for destruction, was the very thing that would lead to their death. I knew the moment she made contact, or even just her power made contact with them, they would turn into nothing but ashes. It would be like how the miasma was powerless against her barrier.
Alyona swiveled in the air as the pale blue barrier around her shifted to silver. She was just within reach of the clamoring demons now, and Laika let out a stifled scream when one of the insect like creatures wrapped their pincers around Alyona’s bare leg.
But I bared my fangs in a grin when he met his doom.
Ashes were all that remained of the demon a moment later, and as Alyona continued her descent, her barrier expanded until the Crimson Dragon was completely enveloped by it. All of the demons that had been both attacking the dragon and using her as a step stool were turned into nothing more than dark ash.
Then Alyona landed beside the crimson dragon, right as rain, and a victorious growl resounded in my chest as the ash of the demons fluttered through the air.
It was almost a pitiful demise. They stood no chance against Alyona’s puri
ty magic, and a visceral sort of pride coursed through me. Watching this only made me want Alyona more, but it also made me want more power.
I needed power, some sort of ability that wouldn’t cause such widespread damage as my control over stone would. Something that, while it was deadly accurate and precise, would still have an immense amount of power behind it. A power that would allow me to stand side by side with Alyona as we fought.
Suddenly, Asher’s voice echoed through my head.
Power, is that what you want? Power to protect the people closest to you?
“Yes!” I exclaimed.
I told you I’d lend you my power. You will be borrowing it this time, so don’t worry about it. I am of little use, chained by the miasma as I am, but this, I can do this. I will guide this power of mine through you.
Suddenly, lightning crackled all along my scales, and a rush of burning ice ran up my throat. I opened my maw and let out a deafening roar. Just as my roar echoed around me, black lightning fell down from the skies in jagged strikes that killed some of the demons along the perimeter of Alyona’s barrier.
While she had managed to kill the hundreds that had been directly torturing the fallen dragon, there were still easily a thousand more demons on the outside of her barrier. They were just waiting for her barrier to falter so they could rush in and consume both her and the dragon.
Not like we’d give them that chance.
“Laika, are you ready?” Lightning crackled all around us as I steadied myself for the dive.
“My Lord, I was born ready.” Laika’s determined voice reached my ears as she tightened her grip around one of my spikes. “These foul beasts will regret tainting our world with their presence.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” I laughed viciously as I prepared my body for the dive down into the barrier Alyona had created. “Let’s make these bastards regret their entire existences.”