Chapter 130

Why?

The minute Alexa stepped through the portal, and the world around her changed from that of Stonehenge to that of an alien planet she had never truly set foot upon, she collapsed. Her indomitable strength was gone, her energy to keep standing was taken from her. Like a puppet with the strings cut, she fell to the ground and she could not, or rather would not get up.

Tears.

Tears rolled down her face, as she tried to process everything. There was so much going on, looking back she could see the way her mother was crying, the way she was grieving right there in public, her emotions so raw and on display for all to see. Seeing her mother’s reaction, Alexa realized that her mother was stronger than she was, than she could ever be, to be that strong, to show your pain, your fear, your frustration all at once. That was a strength she didn’t have, that was a strength that she wanted, gods knew she wanted that type of strength. The ability to be out there and to proclaim loudly and for all to see that she needed help, that she all but demanded it, that was a strength Alexa didn’t have. This was why she found herself on the floor of a cave, versus in the arms of a good friend.

In this moment, she found that she wanted to be near someone. Well not just anyone, there were only two people that came to mind automatically. The first was her brother, though she knew that if he was here then he would only be able to console her for a moment before he felt the need to move on to help mother. That just left Gina, the emotional rollercoaster who always made her feel so odd inside. Somehow, Alexa knew that if Gina was here, everything would be all right. Of course, she wasn’t here, she was back in the states, back where her parents should be. That of course led her to other thoughts, darker thoughts.

How could her dad have died? He had been left behind on purpose. He wouldn’t have been a help, his class and build were not designed to take on dragons. He would have just gotten in the way and he seemingly knew that, didn’t he?

He couldn’t have died, that was the thought that Alexa clung too. That was the thought that allowed her to at least sit up, to stop crying. When did she become so emotional? She could still feel the power of the Void rolling around her, but she also had the energy from the rest of the bomb, the Fire, Lightning, and Wind energy was also playing havoc on her senses right now. It was likely the Void magic that was causing her to feel so unbalanced, to feel so off kilter. Of course, that was it, she had never experienced it before, and it was likely to muck with her senses, making her see and experience things that were not there. This was all a hallucination, right? Was she still battling Ryelifa? She so wanted it to be so, that this was all one terrible nightmare, one that she would soon awake from. At least that was what she hoped.

Smack.

Alexa smacked herself, hard, trying to awaken her mind from the sudden stupor she found herself in. She had been through a lot in such a short period of time. It all seemed too odd, her parents magically coming over from the states to join her, only to be struck down by a cowardly enemy. An enemy who chose to strike from shadows and behind obfuscated Trojan horses. Offering a present that intends to do their dirty work for them.

Shaking her head, she realized that this was all a lie, that what she had seen was the truth. She had seen him, she had regrown tissue on a corpse, something she never thought was possible before, and not something she wanted to, but he was dead. That much Alexa was certain about, as she remembered clearly, picking up the Void from his body, she thought he was still alive then, that he still had a chance, but there was nothing she could have done. Even when Bullford dragged his body away from the area of the Void magic, he still showed no signs of life. Alexa had hoped that if she pushed herself, got up before she was ready, if she got there quickly that he would be better, that she would be able to save him. Him, the one person she would have wanted to save the most.

Well no, that wasn’t entirely true, there was one person she found herself thinking of even now, someone who the very thought of losing would be too much for her to bear. Just that thought alone was enough to shatter her floundering resolve. As she felt, well how did she feel? The thought made her sick, here she was grieving the death of her father, and she could recognize this as grief. Honestly she didn’t know what stage she was on, when dealing with grief. She didn’t even know if she would be able to go through and experience all of the stages of grief. What were the stages again? When would she be able to move on? For years she had hated her lack of emotions, but now that she was finally starting to make some progress, that was when she was put to the ultimate test and forced to deal with this.

This time she didn’t collapse completely, not this time, but it was close. She kept her arms locked into place, forcing her to all but lean there off of the ground. “Breathe.” Alexa said, as she forced air into her lungs, as her cold rational mind tried to help. It couldn’t take over, there was too much energy in her body for that to happen. But she could feel both sides of her consciousness working together.

Then just as she was starting to come to her senses, she heard it, the first sign of the troubles that this dungeon had prepared for her.

“GWAHAHAHAHA!”

At that, Alexa heard the deep billowing sound of a monster whose rumbling voice spoke to a body that was massive in scale. Turning her head down the hallway, Alexa saw a giant golden eye staring back at her.

“Already come to give up?” The dragon, for that was what this creature was, of that there was no doubt. “The fact that you have made it this far and are still unbound to one of my kind is a testament to your strength, but it is no bother. Your little conquest of rebellion ends here and now. Submit to me, here and now and I will let you live as my pawn.” The dragon spoke.

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Only after a second did Alexa realize that the dragon was speaking in its Dragon tongue, a language that she knew intimately well.

Hearing the words, Alexa rose to her feet. Anger filled her, anger at the fact that there was yet another dragon to slay, yet one more monster to stand before her.

Idly in her mind she realized she had seen and then subsequently dismissed the system message informing her that she had gone to a Dragon Trial, instead of the actual dungeon she was supposed to have entered. Of course, this made sense in a way, she didn’t know where dragons came from, not truly, but they seemed to have come from the darker places. The places of darkness and demons. For a moment, she had a flashing thought, one that spoke of Orcs and Elves being noble in cause, at least at first, joining forces to raise an army to fight back against the oppression of dragons and their ilk. Having seen firsthand the direct portals that a dragon was able to create over a nexus point, Alexa wasn’t willing to dismiss the idea as a flight of fantasy just yet. At the very least there could have been some form of truth to the thought. In her mind, she realized that the Trials of Ascension could be monumental boons, letting people gain slotted classes first, as a means to temper themselves and their bodies before getting ready to help out in a time of war. This way even cooks and janitors would have the bare minimum requirements needed to succeed and even thrive in a prolonged battle against dragons and their true masters.

Thinking about that sent a chill down Alexa’s spine, for while she now found herself almost enjoying the burst of power that slaying dragons gave her, she realized that there was still something far worse that the dragons represented. A force of monster that was able to corrupt others from a distance, across space and time, able to corrupt the very core of a person, before draining them dry and turning them into a husk of their former selves. She remembered Count Rojas, Gina’s mother, and the state she was left in after the battle. Not only did Alexa kill her body, but the Count Rojas’ very soul was beckoned? Summoned? Devoured? From the other end of the universe. At that thought, Alexa remembered the immediate reaction of Gina, how she almost went away, but then held firm. Gina fought her emotions to flee, to run away like a coward, to run away like Alexa herself had, when she entered this dungeon and dismissed the warnings that flashed before her eyes. Remembering that exact moment, Alexa realized that Gina despite being smaller and possessing a much frailer body than her was so much stronger than she was, than she had any right to be. Realizing this, Alexa felt a firm resolve well up inside her, the loosely packed body that had barely been hanging on filled with a cloud of righteous fury.

Anger filled her, fueling her body to rise up. To stand up for what she believed in, to stand up and fight on, even when the world around her burned.

At this moment, staring down a massive dragon, one who dared to mock her, Alexa felt something inside her grow. She was hollow, she had meant it when she answered the Captain’s question about how she felt. At that point she felt hollow, now that same void, that same hollow opening was being quickly filled with a sense of bottomless rage.

A quick glance around showed that the dungeon was suffering. This dungeon like so many other dungeons she found related to the Dragon Trials was a prisoner, one that Alexa herself knew the key to release.

“Come on coward. I can tell that you understand me. I don’t know how, but this will make breaking you in that much easier. If you already know the commands, then you are already halfway there. Come and join me as the first of my new warriors.” The dragon beckoned from the far end of the tunnel.

Looking at the tunnel, Alexa realized that the dragon was too large for such a small tunnel, also it was clear that this dragon lacked the ability to fire any long range attacks, otherwise she would have already seen a puff of flames, a hiss of acid or something. All of this posturing spoke to the fact that the dragon was unable to hit her from its current position.

Realizing that, she then decided her priorities had shifted. For now she was not focused on dealing with the dragon, she had time to deal with the annoying creature. First, she needed to fix one thing.

She wasn’t able to fix her father. She wasn’t able to stop the previous dragon before it could create a rift to another dimension. She wasn’t able to save the reporter, nor the cameraman, both of whom died silent remorseless deaths. In her mind, Alexa hoped that their bodies would at least be given to their families, so that they could mourn. But then realizing that the Captain and Bullford were both there, she felt that their deaths along with, she paused, not wanting to truly think about his name, instead using the indefinite pronouns of he and him to describe him. It was a coping mechanism, one she recognized almost immediately, and one she found herself using for the immediate moment, as it took away some of the sting, made it just a little less real, a little more bearable, for the moment. And that was all she needed, a moment, well two moments actually.

Rumble.

“I said come here!” The dragon bellowed and roared as it stomped its massive feet on the ground, causing the entire dungeon to tremble and shake.

“You wait your turn. I will kill you in a moment.” Alexa said, her mouth speaking the Dragon language quite easily.

The sudden outburst of her words caused the dragon to pause, as it just stared at Alexa with dumbfounded confusion for a moment. In all its millennia of existence, it had never heard a creature talk to it in such a way that it was momentarily left speechless, but just for a minute. That was all the time that Alexa needed, in order to fully take control of the situation.

“Before that though, I want you to see the first step of futility. I want you to realize that you are nothing more than an ant hill in my way.” Alexa said, the whole time she stared defiantly at the golden eye of the dragon as she began forming the three-dimensional pentagonal shape that would serve as the key to release this dungeon. Then turning towards the dungeon wall, she began speaking again, this time in the language of the Precursors.

“Prepare to be freed.” Alexa said.

At that, the dungeon that had been mostly avoiding the whole situation suddenly came to life. Alexa could tell that the dungeon was suddenly awake and excited as the walls and floors around her began to go from a dull muted tone to something that seemed to flow and radiate with a vibrant color. Seeing the sudden glow of life come to the dungeon, and the way it allowed its hardened walls to fold away, as it exposed a long thick chain warped around an organ that reminded Alexa of a human heart so much that she couldn’t unsee the similarities in her mind. Seeing all of this, Alexa realized that despite how she felt at the moment, the universe still went on. Her planet was getting closer and closer to being fully integrated, and no amount of tragedy or denial would stop that. Realizing this, she made a note that she would continue to try her best, to get as strong as possible so the next tragedy was less effective.

Holding up the key, Alexa mentally gave a prayer, I hope you are watching, dad.

Then realizing that thinking the name didn’t hurt nearly as bad as she had expected, she continued, unlocking the chains that bound the dungeon.

Clatter-clink.

With a simple tug the chains that had bound this ancient dungeon for centuries fell away. At that Alexa turned to see the dragon still staring at her, though its eye was no longer as amused as before. In fact, staring at the beast she could tell it was in a state of Confusion.

Seeing that look of confusion on its eye caused Alexa to smile, as she began preparing to what she did best, the only thing she could get correct, killing dragons.

As she focused on the massive dragon, six exact copies of her began to form out of thin air, each copy was a densely woven mixture of the different schools of magic that she was just now beginning to feel like she fully comprehended. Seeing the copies, come to life, she completed her prayer to her father.

And if you are watching, I hope I make you proud.

Then with her prayer done, she had no more time left to delay, no more reasons to wait. This was going to be the first of many battles and roadblocks yet to come.