Akiregom: Flame of The Lost.
Written by I. B. Dragonoid (Ilyes Bounihi).
Prologue: The End of the Peak
In the year 16666 of the Pre-Umbral age, formerly known as the Era of the Peak, in a world known as Braav, deep in the Bloodrain Sector, located in the Northern Strip of the Cosmos, the event that would end the era was about to unfold.
In a flat, plane desert, glistening yellow sand writhed and moved like fireflies of the earth, every particle of it spinning in a hypnotic, mesmerizing pattern. The sight looked beautiful, which was ironic, considering the current events. There was only the sand for many miles, the nearest landmarks barely visible to the eye. To the north was the vague outline of the city state of Averan, only the majesty and sheer size of the wall allowing it to be seen from almost forty miles away. To the south stood a glowing Farsight Piller, a magical construction whose light would look weak up close, but the farther one got from it, the more intense the light got, which guided traveling ships and other vehicles at night for as far as thousands of miles. A sign hung on the pillar, lit by its glow. It read:
“To the north lay the Desert Star, Averan the Stalwart Bastian. To the south lay the twin Cities, the Dreamer's Garden and the Ruby Eye. To the east lay the Portal Hub, where adventurers may seek the glory they dream of, and to the west lay the Great abyss, where no one goes but heroes and fools.”
The wind was chilling, howling with gusts that sent whipping puddles of dust and sand floating in the air. The sands reflected the bright, golden moon above, which would sometimes seem like a sphere about to split in the middle, like some eye of a stirring celestial titan on the verge of awakening. However, the figures fighting in the middle of the desert paid no heed to the environment around them.
Two draconic-looking figures stood side by side amidst the endless particles of sand, their expressions determined and their jaws clenched. Facing them was a hideous monster, an abominable horror that looked like a twenty feet tall and thirty feet long amalgamation of feline, arachnid and octopus-like features. Crimson as blood, its leonine head possessed terrifying maws filled with fangs and razor-sharp teeth. Tentacles extended out of it like a pack of beasts, each one of them possessing a miniature version of its actual head. The tentacle mouths opened and closed with synchronized shrieks, a symphonic cord that cracked reality itself for the duration of the sound. Its eight legs were barely visible, spider-like, with spikes that had undulating vapor running through them before spreading through the air. The vapor was black and terrifying when one looked at it. When it flew out from the monster's legs, the moonlight would decrease immensely, as if the smoke's presence scared the very moon.
As for the creatures facing it, they looked like humanoids with draconic features. The man was decked in a strange armor that looked to be made of scales of a fire dragon, and the exposed parts of his body were colored red, with deep and light green patterns lining them. A shimmering halo revolved around him, and the air twisted near him from the sheer intensity of the racial enhancement he had activated since the beginning of the battle. The woman had a slightly translucent green dragon scale armor on, hints of deeper green and light red shining through it. She also had the same enhancement. Nature energy billowed around her, preparing to protect her from any attack.
“Do not waste this chance, dear little warriors. Join me, and you will be held in high regard by my followers. You are worthy of being a leader among them. Do not be foolish enough to think you can defeat me. Be content with becoming my shadows, and then you will rise when I rise. You may be the King and Queen of a nation, but I will make you royalty that owns the Cosmos itself!", the monster said, her raspy and polyphonic voice resonating. It was bestial and menacing, but trying to sound sweet and tempting nonetheless.
“You know that looking like that isn't really known for bringing people to your side, right?”, the man said jokingly, though he never lost his guard. His and Orga's hearts were stronger than to fall into the beast's temptation. He analyzed it again, and a green System
window appeared.
Name: The Bloodmother (Infinium-ranked Artificial Primordial of the Sanguine Song).
VE remaining: 60%.
"Stop messing around, Ergom, less talking and more striking! ", Orga, the woman, said.
" Blaze Fury, Fire Dragon's Breath! ", he chanted, and golden flames burst out from his hands in a dense and violent stream, striking the beast, who screeched slightly, its blood-made body liquifying in some tiny spots due to the heat. “Blight be cursed! This is not enough, we'll have to unveil our true forms and use our inner forces if we want to win this.”, he thought.
Sure enough, the System indicated that the Bloodmother's health barely fell down to 58%, and those were flames from a King -stage bloodline he'd been using against the abomination, with the King State activated. They had hit her countless times, but the maximum damage they were able to inflict per strike was just 2% of her vital energy.
“Orga, let's unveil our forms”, he said quietly. A message formed using Orga's intent tapped his mind, indicating her ascent. Then they aligned their position and started chanting in the Inorian language.
“Rahdaka I-ţaāre p-therí athkir!”, they said in sync, harmonizing their tone perfectly. An explosion of red light spread out from the man in a dome-like nova, and a similar explosion of green energy blasted out from Orga. When the light died down, the humanoid dragon scale armor wielders were replaced by two large and majestic dragons.
Ergom was fiery red, with gold and green-colored lines running across his spiked back. Golden-gray fire trailed his flickering wings, their intensity rising until they spread out and engulfed his entire body in gold-gray flame, making him look like he'd come straight out of the Infernal depths. Orga, on the other hand, looked leaner, a green haze surrounding her. Vague outlines of trees, small plants, and plant beasts formed from the haze, her Path of Nature's echo letting her harness the ghosts of dead creatures to assist her in battle. Her green scales looked like leaves, her wings swirling with a shimmering green vapor. The duo roared together, Ergom's roar a deep, rumbling sound, and Orga's a shimmering angry screech.
“Hah, you think you can scare me just by turning into lizards? You have defied me, sealing your fates, and my proposal is now null and void. So be it, I will take you by force! ", the Bloodmother said, her tentacles moving agitatedly.
Ergom roared, a sphere of extremely condensed golden-gray fire twenty feet wide bursting out of his mouth and moving rapidly, engulfing the creature in a dense inferno. It shrieked loudly, making space crack once more from the sound's power. A small notification appeared in the corner of his vision telling him that the Bloodmother's VE had dropped from 58% to 45%.
Orga performed a combination attack, making her nature's echoes send out sharp thorns and barbed jaws filled with slowing and damaging poison at the enemy, dropping its VE by 1% and making it slightly slower, while she herself made a Mana call, conducting the power of Mana through the sound of her voice. She made space around the Bloodmother twist and shrink, attempting to crush her inwards. An incorporeal version of the dragoness appeared, looking clearer than the vague echoes surrounding her. The ethereal Anima started throwing out techniques made from a fused path of light, primal, and nature energies. The red, white and green-colored techniques moved at an accelerated speed, hitting the Bloodmother and flashing with a translucent force that amplified the damage.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The Bloodmother's VE was dropping faster than before, reaching 36% after Orga's and her Anima's attack, but the trio was getting tired. They could not sustain this much energy output for much longer. The Bloodmother was a primordial, innately far stronger than them. The fact that she was a rank and two stages above them made her even stronger, which just went to show how powerful the trio's attacks were. It was already a miracle that they could hurt her at all, and even more miraculous that they dropped her health almost down to a third. However, they were losing, and both the trio and the Bloodmother knew it. They were burning through their stamina at an extreme rate to manage this, using the King State, their inner forces, Auxesis, Volition, Manamancy and their Nobility Skills, all of which gobbled up their stamina like a void. They were also ceaselessly attacking, not allowing the monster to hit back. That was why the horrific creature wasn't actively fighting back. Oh, she tried to get out of the compressed reality zone wrought by Orga, but the attempt was half-hearted at best. She was just waiting for the perfect time to…
Splurt
“Orga, noooo!“, Ergom thundered. Orga was on the ground, blood-forged tentacles piercing her body in various places. He panicked, desperately looking around, searching for a way to help her. His eyes met the terror-stricken face of his wife, who couldn't speak from the pain and horror she was feeling. However, she kept mouthing one sentence over and over again. “Do it!”
The tips of the tentacles inside Orga’s body started changing, hollowing out like tubes. Tubes that conducted more of the Bloodmother's blood into the dragoness's body. Ergom tried to move, but he just couldn't. Whether it was due to fear or an external force holding him frozen, he didn’t know, and he couldn't care less. He was so scared, so angry…
“The Plan!”, a voice assaulted his mind, and he calmed down, but only slightly. The voice was Orga's, and it was faint. And the fact that she was telling him to execute the Plan meant that she believed wholeheartedly that there was no getting out of her situation. He did not hesitate. If they were going to die today, then they would die as martyrs. He started chanting.
“Creatures of the countless worlds, Guardians of the Cosmos, heed my call! Here be my sacrifice, here be my heart and soul. To our hatchling I gift it, so deliver it safely, and let our final covenant be struck. Use our very essence to purify the bloodline of my kin that we have cultivated and refined ever since our dawn, and pass it on to the Last Hope. Here be my inner spark, a dying ember that I failed to kindle. Pass on the mantle, pass on the burden and pride of our clan. All power I have ever grasped shall be my legacy, and my legacy I pass on.”, he stopped for a moment. This next part wasn't part of the plan, but he had decided anyway. He was going to die a martyr, and his hatchling needed his help.
“Our blood is the blood of warriors, so a warrior we seek. Let the Seed of my body be its own, filling it with vitality and strength. Let my mind energy endow it with the spark of Battle, so that it may Conquer the Storm of War. Let my Anima be the guardian of the last hope of our nation! Guide this newborn to safety, and lead it to the best possible source of knowledge and companionship!”, he said quietly, encrypting the sound with a working of intent, making it sound like a strained growl. It wasn't too hard. After all, he was still trying to break whatever freezing technique had been used on him and move to help Orga, still holding to the hope that he could save her somehow.
“May the God protect you, child. I wish I could've seen you hatch, but it seems as though it isn't meant to be. I hope you live a good life wherever you're guided to, despite the whole mess we're putting you into. I hope you don't regret your life like I am doing right now. I hope you fulfill our dream, defeating this evil spider and restoring glory to our people, and many, many more things. My heart burns hotter than a volcano at the thought of saying goodbye before even having the chance to look at you, but it's reality. Peace and Mercy, Death and Torment.”, he thought, his tears not having the chance to spill from his eyes before they evaporated. He could feel Orga calling to the Guardians as well, gifting her mana and the connection to the Path of echoes to the hatchling within her, managing it despite the pain and fear she was feeling. He felt the tendrils of the Guardians' combined souls reach out to them, gently pulling the different energies out of them and into safety, where they would deliver those gifts, and burdens, to their intended target.
“Ah, this body, so powerful and full of potential!”, said the voice of Orga, but it wasn't her. The voice was a little different, Sweet and melodious. It made his anger rise, and he struggled harder against his invisible, inescapable bonds. She... it... stood up from when Orga had fallen on the ground after it punctured her with tentacles with unbelievable speed. It was a dragon, but instead of being the green, lean shape of Orga he knew, this shape was larger. Its scales were crimson, with faint black patterns visible beneath. Its head was more like the leonine shape the monster's previous form possessed, and its face, with Orga's facial features, smiled at him, a predatory grin that hid the ghost of the real Orga's emotions.
“Oh, so much power going into that egg of yours, dear. We can't have that now, can we? Or better yet, I will make it my heir. How about that?”, she continued. Ergom growled in rage and frustration. He could already hear the dark side of him stirring and saying: "I told you this would happen, but you wouldn't listen. Now you've doomed both us and our people. You should have chosen me. If you had done that, we would have been able to escape. Be happy with your failure, you bastard!".
The monster's face twisted into Orga's real emotions, the overwhelming pain and terror clear as day, but it soon returned back to the monster's vicious, evil grin.
“Ah, the fear on your face is priceless, little Leaf! You even managed to make this body show your agony without my control. I'm impressed!”, she continued, and Ergom's anger started consuming what was left of his energy, making his death come faster. " Oh, I have an idea. Now that I have elevated myself to a higher form, I will give a new name to myself. My name shall be... hmm... let's see... OH, Orgomis! Fitting, isn't it? I am Orga's nightmare, the last emotion she would ever feel in her sad life being delicious, absolute terror! Wouldn't you agree, Ergom dear? "
“Don't you dare say our names, you Blight-cursed monster!”, Ergom roared. The invisible bonds holding him back were now squeezing, twisting and forming a complicated knot, a teleportation array. He was confused, was he being taken somewhere?
“Ergom, Orga. Ergom, Orga. Ergom, Orga!”, the Bloodmother, now named Orgomis, mocked, emphasizing the words while showing a fake expression of joy on her face.
" While I'd love to stay by your side and get to know you, dear, I'll have to fulfill the bargain I struck with the Lord of Chaos. You see, he wants one of you to go somewhere, and I have chosen you. You have lessened the degree to which he would benefit from dissecting you by one hundred percent, but that isn't my business anymore. He wanted you, and I am delivering you. Don't worry, I approve of the action, even though it's supposed to undermine me. Have a nice death out there!", she said, winking at him and coming closer to squeeze his shoulder gently, which infuriated him even more, his bestial nature breaking free of the sapient mind that had contained and tempered it for so long, but it was already too late. Sure enough, he felt space and reality around him link to a point of reality somewhere else in the Cosmos, and he was pulled into the unknown. The last thing he heard was Orgomis clapping vigorously while giggling and cheering, as if she had been watching an enjoyable show. His infuriating roar reverberated in between the two points of reality, heard in both locations at the same time.
"My child! My Heir! Remember this and follow it as law! Conquer the Storm! Avenge the Kin! Spurn the Shadow! Walk the Path! "
“Oh, that was delicious, truly worthy of being my first feast for my first victory in this cosmos!”, Orgomis purred to herself. She started weaving a grand curse of one thousand and one layers, designed to seal the hatchling's power and compel it to serve her. Oh, she would care for it like no other, better than she imagined the most doting mother would be, in fact. After all, it was going to be her most precious asset. But it was better to implant a soft compulsion of servitude than not, especially if the energy that had been transferred to it had any undesirable components. She meticulously wove, using her Sanguine Song to carve pieces of solid reality and embed them into the weaving. She attracted countless spirits, ghosts, wraiths, vestiges and other incorporeal creatures and bound them to the curse, giving it life of its own. She was almost going to start working on the final layer, the one with the compulsion, but something in her new body stirred. An explosion of green rocked her form, as Orga's Anima destroyed itself. She thought that was the end of it, but soon, an energy resonance built up.
There was Mana in there somewhere, and it was resonating with reality itself, interfering with her song. A strange shape started to form in the sky, glowing with a light intense enough to turn night into day. The mana responded, twisting and solidifying into a miniature version of the shape above, settling somewhere between the egg's developing aspects. "A Rune of Light? ", she thought, apprehension rising within her. She tried extinguishing the miniature rune with her Primordial Essence, but it pulsed, and absorbed the essence, purifying it of the Sanguin Song attribute. The rune changed and pulsed again, sending pain through her body. Just when she thought she could handle it, an even more violent explosion occurred, focused on the link between her and her prisoner's hatchling. The force of the blast sent the egg out of her body and into the air, a streak of white light that quickly vanished. The Rune of Light in the sky pulsed even more intensely, sending a ray attack at Orgomis. It wasn't even meant to hurt her, just stop her from tracking the egg and possibly recovering it long enough for it to disappear way out of her reach. The rune above slowly lost its radiance and winked out, its work finished, and the day turned into night once again.
"I'll find you again, and you will be mine.", she promised. Even if the final layer wasn't woven, the thousand layers should be enough to seal its power and prevent it from growing stronger quickly. Orgomis conjured a black throne made of solidified reality and sat on it, then started singing to the world's inhabitants. After all, no one weaker than her two previous opponents could resist the Sanguine Song. Her army was building, and the era of the Dark Matron was about to begin.