I try not to giggle as I see the stunned looks on the assembled peanut gallery’s faces. They’re completely drenched in the splattered gore, every last one of them. As I’m landing, I’m hearing shocked queries like, “But how? He was countering everything you threw at him!”
Rolling my eyes, I grumble, “Please tell me that you’re not all so simple-minded that none of you could figure out his power. He reversed things. I was toying with him to get him to eat me. Remember who I am? I’m the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. Can anyone guess what a void existing in space does? It implodes. What’s the opposite of an implosion? Anyone? An explosion. I haven’t even used any of my daily resources up, because I’m saving them to protect the refugee train that’ll be incoming. You all should have been made aware of it. Anyway, pardon me while I feast. If you’re hungry, help yourselves to anything other than his heart.”
Stepping into the proferred chest cavity, as Revvy and Greggy step aside, allowing me to claim my prize, I realize that Mydraig might have been a metallic dragon. Possibly. His scales had a coppery sheen. Their reflection was the kind that casted a rainbow hue in a way that the roundness of the scales gave off blueish or greenish tones depending on which angle they were viewed at. They’re fairly lovely, too bad they were on an idiot who worked for Terrorzin.
I kind of thought that all metallics would oppose Terrorzin due to The Platinum having been the hero of dragonkind. I guess every group of people is, as always, filled with unique individuals, none of whom should be treated as anything less than unique. It is why I should, and want to, offer mercy to everyone in Terrorzin’s hordes, even if most of them seem brainwashed. Anyway, time to chow down.
Oh with RS2, it is much, much faster to absorb dragonforce from Mydraig than it would have been as cherubic Reggie. Even though his dragonforce was thoroughly spread throughout both his body, and his immediate vicinity. It makes sense, that it was probably the contact with his dragonforce that made certain abilities simply revert, since he didn’t need to see them after all. It’s a good thing I didn’t try to use anything that might have been considered my cosmic-king form’s power in a hostile manner during the fight while up close.
Ugh, still, chowing down on massive dragon hearts, and being drenched in dragon blood while absorbing a dragonforce from within isn’t exactly a pleasant, or immediate activity. Despite that, I’ve absorbed his in record time. Seems he was an acid dragon, and never even had a chance to use it.
Huh, an Ice, a Fire, a Lightning, and an Acid? In that order? The order in which I gained my first elemental spells in Can’Z’aas? That’s a friggin’ hell of a weird coincidence. Anyway, since it was quick enough, and the peanut gallery is still gawping as they clean themselves off, I might as well try something. I need to earn enough of Leezahna’s respect that she isn’t going to eff over our shop stall when I eventually try to get her down to Mount Verdimenn. I’ll work on Nietru’s request.
Floating out to Mydraig’s shoulder, I call out loudly, “Alright everybody, story time! I’ll answer questions in a few moments. If any of you want to know who your Hero is, why Schism cries, weeps, floats around seeming dazed, any of that, stick around. I’ll be working to relocate a thousand refugees here today, refugees from a faction led by Attraxiaz the Loud, a Thunderer that I offered mercy to. Mercy, deaths, and love are the primary reasons I weep. I’ve offered a fair bit of the latter, and received quite a bit as well. The former I’ve similarly offered a lot of, but it has been rarely accepted. Central amongst them is death, something I’ve caused incalculable numbers of across two lifetimes.”
I allow myself to weep a scant few tears as I draw a deep breath and sigh. Drawing a shuddering breath, I continue, “I’m not even from your world, this planet, Rayileklia. I’m similar to Changeling Fae from your Fae’s Wilds, but even that isn’t a perfect comparison for what I am. Words that describe me, my birth, and my powers, don’t exist, and don’t mean anything on this world. Digital. Know what that means? Nothing to do with fingers, and only tangentially related to numbers. Electricity has positive and negative states, ons or offs, ones or zeros. With a wise enough application of ones and zeroes, you can make any number with only a few of them, and with any number, you can make any letter, or word. With any and every word at your disposal, a digital being at our base level, is made of ones and zeros. I guess it hardly matters. Point is, you don’t understand who I am yet, much less what I am. I’d like you all to give me a chance.”
I barely refrain from rolling my eyes at having to ask for a chance from people whose opinions I mostly don’t give a rat’s ass about. Still, I attempt to explain where I’m coming from, “On my world, I took a thousand lives in an instant, then I reversed time and undid that action, but still came to take dozens of lives. I caused the death and downfall of entire cities and civilizations. I saved several as well. I came to this world after dying on my world in an attempt to save it from a calamity, an apocalyptic union of four gods, three of whom were my, well, allies at least, and one was definitely a friend. They were at the mercy of fate, and the fourth god’s summoning, a hateful, spiteful sea serpent. I’d only been alive on my own world for a couple of years, two, three, maybe four, I forget. I arrived after my death on my world, here on Rayileklia this last June. Within days of my arrival, I slew an ancient purple named Kozzurth.”
There are gasps and murmurs, but before they can start asking questions, I maneuver my monologue, “Rayileklia hasn’t been kind to me, but that only makes me stronger. I defeated the Cult of the Bright Lord in their Cathedral of Blood, me and a blue kobold named Dippy basically slew them all, while Teuila and another friend tried to infiltrate to find their leader. Their leader was a bloated pile of excrement, figuratively, and he was hiding behind a massive spell of radiance, disintegrating radiation. I walked through it and slew him by holding him within it. It was one of the most excruciating pains of my life, and I’ve suffered a lot of excruciating pains.”
Sighing, I gloss over a lot of details, “In a human city known as Victo, a necromancer tried and failed to steal my soul, his trove of stolen knowledge is how I began learning Rayileklian magic, to replace the magic from my world that I could no longer reach out to. I foiled assassination attempts in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wild’s, I entreated with the Sisters Hidden in the Mists. I battled the Felgre hordes with my ally Tiktik, and my beloved Teuila, holding them off for half a day on my own, when Tiktik was out of commission, and Teuila hadn’t yet arrived from where she’d gone to relay the evacuation order. We fought for several more hours before we opened a hole in the sky, a hole in what I call the Worldstorm. The sunlight bought the Aasimovians of Autumn Brook more time to evacuate.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I draw another shuddering breath, attempting to skip a lot of details, “We fled Autumn Brook, because while Teuila and I were capable of laying waste to thousands and thousands of Felgres, and we did, they were endless. Felgre Portalspawn just continue to release more of their kind onto our world. We fled through The Gap, trying to rescue our kobold friends from there, where we ran into Astridus and Olashax repeatedly. They fled from their every encounter with us. I took Olashax’s left eye, Teuila shattered both of his hands. I later took Olashax’s life on the first offensive of the war, the first open engagement. I destroyed Yisstendahl, usurping the betrayer as your archmage, secretly at the behest of our Lady Kinzul. My—. Someone very special to me.”
Smirking, I wait for the murmurs and conjectures about that last bit to die down a tad before trying to wrap up, “Teuila, who later became our Tenith, was there to help me fight Yisstendahl, creating the opening I needed to utterly destroy him. Sun was at my side to help me defeat Olashax, providing a counter-heat that kept my magical explosion from being directed away from the ancient Ice. My son Lucky, our Hunter, and another special person to me, Luni, our Muse, were there at my side keeping Vanathar grounded which allowed me to finish him more easily. I had to koff, assist, some of the Paradox Vivant on that engagement. There’s no reason to injure anyone’s pride, it was a massive engagement that was underestimated.”
Ugh, I hate bragging, even if I try to downplay it. Still, I attempt to convey, “Let’s just say, in under two minutes time total, I managed to traverse most of a battlefield, free two friends from dragonfright, which I’m immune to, learn an entirely new form of an ally that I can summon with my magics, disrupt what was it, seventeen? Psychic mages, Psions, that were pinning down an ally, killing a majority of them, and then killing Vanathar. I’d offered Vanathar mercy, but he spat in my face, literally, so I ended him.”
I try to still my breathing as I admit something I’d rather not have to share, “There’s a dangerous part of me that was accidentally freed during that battle. Someone dear to me was injured, and while some of you may think that you might go berserk with rage in such a place, my wrath actually does take over control of my body. It had me slay roughly one hundred to three hundred fire mages in the course of eight minutes. We could have been more efficient, but I wasn’t in control.”
Recalling another thing from the engagement, I add, “Also, Sun and I defeated a magma worm in that engagement, with everyone’s help. Well, mostly so that Sun would have an escape route, since he wouldn’t have faired as well against the explosion I caused inside the magma worm.”
Chuckling for a bit, I shake my head at myself. Rolling my eyes while I keep them closed, so as not to show the facial gesture to anyone, I recollect, “From that engagement, I was to travel solo to Mount Horatzchi for an assault on the ShizTinth stronghold. Along that path, as is my prerogative in the field, I made a judgment call to speak with a faction leader that I had spied marshaling her troops. I requested her surrender, and offered her mercy, much like I had offered Vanathar, much like I try to find the time to offer to those that I can. She, Attraxiaz the Loud, wisely accepted it.”
Flashing a smile towards some faces in the crowd that I recognize, I almost reminisce about the time I’d spent with Atter, “Over the course of a day, we built up a rapport, and I took her as my prisoner in a fashion, in order to grant her the safety that comes with such a status. We’ll be rescuing her people today, but the prisoner status was to provide safety to Atter, Attraxiaz. Her, and her clutch, that we’ve managed to rescue today already.”
At this, the gasps are widespread, and louder than any murmur. Nodding at the appreciation of the idea that we’ve offered sanctuary to a titled Thunderer, and her unborn clutch, I work towards finishing my external deeds with, “The assault on the stronghold went smoothly. I, undamaged from my fights with Vanathar, Olashax, psychic mages, fire mages, and the magma worm, slew my way up the insides from the bottom, the very front door while Shield and Aegis were late, and the Dormir were slaying their way down in from the top. I tried to offer mercy at nearly every turn. Unfortunately, so very few accepted it. One that accepted it said he would survive by raiding villages and taking humans as cattle. I had to slay him, which sickens me to my very soul. Two that accepted my mercy are in our prison, earning my trust by keeping their distance from those of you that might be vulnerable to the magics they can wield.”
Scowling at the memory of Tinth breaking a ceasefire, I finish recalling my deeds at ShizTinth, mostly, “Two others that seemed to accept my mercy were Shiz, and Tinth. Tinth betrayed our ceasefire, our peacetalks, and nearly slew Atter and Shiz in an effort to slay me. I destroyed him utterly and completely in an instant for this affront to my mercy, for this affront to people I had offered protection and safety to. We thankfully have many brave and wonderful volunteers, and an amazing man by the Alias of Sponge, that allowed us to save the lives of the Thunderers that will be living amongst us from now on.”
Grumbling, trying to downplay it, I angrily mutter about our flight from ShizTinth, “Of course the stupid Damnation showed up, just as I was finishing absorbing Tinth’s dragonforce, Nonnam, so I called for a retreat, having accomplished our goals in the stronghold. Nonnam was going to pursue, so I risked my life, and drove him into the Worldstorm with the aid of Induul the Green’s breath weapon that was ignited to give me enough explosive force to wrest control over Nonnam’s descent from him. Bugger got away after we landed out the bottom of the Worldstorm, because his six buddies showed up and stole his body from me before I could finish him off. Then I was stuck below the Worldstorm, so it took me a while to find a way up a mountain and get above it to travel towards home. I got picked up by Sun and Muse on the way, thankfully.”
Sighing deeply, I know I need to explain how we’re going to be able to handle the refugees that I’ve said were coming, so I do, “I break the rules of reality, magic, time and space. I’ve created a project in Mount Verdimenn that allows us to grow limitless resources. Wood, clay, stone, eventually metals, and eventually gems. We even currently have unlimited stew, technically. With the help of our Muse, we’ve set up a special location that transforms wealth into goods, or goods into wealth. We have unlimited resources to produce goods with, in order to earn wealth from this magical location, and even unlimited wealth in the way of gems eventually.”
Pausing a moment to let it sink in, I take a short breather before explaining, “This gives us access to unprecedented sustainability, a problem that had been facing dragonkin and dragonkind for most of Rayileklia’s history. This is why there has been hustle and bustle in the lower caverns of Mount Solace, and why many of your friends, family, and acquaintances have been spending their days volunteering, to help this project of infinite sustainability get off the ground.”
I finally end my stupid public address with, “There are a few key people I still need to recruit, to finalize certain magics, to protect the area, and the ability to retain the infinite sustainability forever. So yeah, that’s me, that’s what your Schism is out there doing for you, for those that I can save and offer mercy to. Any questions?”