I had been warned by both Talia and Samantha alongside Artoria that approaching Aethna might cause some problems. All the points they gave me were reasonable, Samantha showed a lot of concern for aethna as dragons only ever bonded with one being to the point they would kill themselves if their master or rider died. Talia and Artoria showed concern for me coming back differently or not coming back at all. It had been hours since I left Eventide hearing my knights even the noble and common people cheer for my success. All on my own with Luna at my side we travelled to the southern front of the continent.
Like many areas of the continent, the southern front was currently a little empty, the only inhabitants being small villages and towns. The southern front also had the easiest time with the monsters and other creatures for the simple fact it was a raised flat ground that was beside the edge of the black mountains. Even the black mountains were a natural wall of protection for Numena against many threats, there was one area people passed through if they were desperate. From where the black corruption that leaked into Camelot originated from the ‘Crematorium of ash’.
The crematorium of ash is something I know very little about. I know more about what is inside that place, the black corruption or as it is more commonly known the weeping virus. My knowledge is even limited in that regard as the weeping virus came to this land somehow through magic and then over time infected various races and people with no proper cure for it. According to Alex and Hollow, the weeping virus cannot be fully cured without certain blood types or groups. However, right now I couldn’t push my concern onto it as we had preventative measures for it to not spread.
“You’re thinking about it aren’t you?”
“Mhm? Oh yeah.” With a heavy sigh looking towards the fire before me I spoke back to Luna who was lying at my back keeping me upright. After I returned from the biosphere Samantha had begun to show signs of the weeping virus which I just began to call the weeping. The weeping slowly began to make Samantha feel uncontrollable amounts of pain, the only way she could relieve herself of pain was either using earthen or ice mana. However, this all fell apart when I before anyone else noticed the weeping begin to appear on her back.
After that, it began to spread to various people throughout the cities cropping up here and there. Luckily, we knew how to contain it and cure people so they could carry on with their lives but the thing with curse diseases or infections, and they will eventually return. There isn’t much you can do about it in that scenario.
“For now, let’s think about the task at hand. Your old bond and friend the dragon aethna.” Luna made it sound like aethna had always been my bond and a friend that I could always count on, not like I had Reaper as well. Aethna hadn’t always been at my side, she was once a being that was a plague across the entirety of this world for many years before my birth.
“Before our bonding, aethna was named ‘the vulture’ by all whilst my family's secret cult treated her as if she was a god descended from the heavens. I didn’t believe in that bollocks like my father did, thinking if he drank the blood of the dragons he could ascend to their level. What a fucking fool… instead I was removed from my family and ousted as a traitor even lost Excalibur. For years I wandered the wastes of onrath trying to survive knowing any day I awoke could be my last. Somehow, I found comfort in that.” looking into the fire I remembered the sensation of anger I held for my family somehow that attracted Aethna’s attention.
“I only heard after being ousted that my father placed my brother Syre on the throne. After that I was hunted whilst being watched by aethna from afar, somehow, I finally met her face to face instead of trying to kill me… she spoke to me. Offering up her blood we made our contract. I’d become her rider if she’d help bring my father and brother to heel.” Pausing for just a moment I reached out towards the flames. “Slowly over years, I built a rebellion. An army. When I thought we were ready I began to fight back.”
From this point on the story was very well known now. I took back what was mine starting with Excalibur and then killing both my remaining family members. Back then after I killed them both feeling joy and wholeness, I proclaimed my reign as the empress of Rosa, now however it’s just an empty feeling that can be covered by the anger I feel for something else. Though I had become distracted from my original goal it was still lingering in my head how much I want to tear the maiden to pieces to even find mordid and Ludwig to rip them a new one.
Throughout the night that I couldn’t sleep, I stared into the golden flames that flickered, Time seemed to meld into one until the morning came. Moving before the light could gather some more gave around an hour or two before any monsters came to this location after smelling the extinguishing of the burning wood. In the southern front of Numena cleric beasts weren’t much of a problem compared to the snakes that hunt even bigger prey than cleric beats. However, even the snakes weren’t as much of a problem compared to the forest itself.
The forest was mostly uncharted. The simple fact of it is it’s so vast and hard to navigate without a guide or a compass. Seeing as I could see mana itself thanks to divinity, I followed the familiar trail of draconic mana that lingered on every scale of aethna. The dense unpopulated forest wasn’t to gawk at with the motes of mana floating all around me in scattered paths leading even further south. The motes mana that I followed weren’t a single colour that could be seen on the spectrum as each person’s mana could be a different colour. Sort of like an emotion.
Although following the motes of draconic mana from aethna, there were still various other types of mana all around such as the motes from gnomes and small critters. The motes from the fae and their cousin race the fairies were less present, which made sense as they like to stick to their hidden villages and dimensional planes. Nevertheless, continuing forward, I happened upon a large structure maybe fifty by forty-six feet. Nothing of the exterior remained aside from a four-foot-tall wall of mossy blackened stone.
“What is that?” Luna asked retreating a step feeling the cold burn of death sting the entire ruined structure before us. Stepping closer I looked towards the statue present at the back of the building, even in my days as Marin this ruin was here, I never knew its significance nor its name. On the pedestal on which the statue stood was a plaque corroded and old yet still readable. The words I could make out in the old tongue, Ascensionism were ‘Nascent Noir’. This name belonged to a primordial their imprisoned queen Hela, who also happened to be the seventh disciple of malphent.
The statue still preserved by magic was a chisel-carved representation of what she looked like. I couldn't tell all the features or figure out what was what from the ruined state of said statue then again some things were clear like the crown made of animal bones and the dress adorned with bones. From my understanding of Hela the primordial concept of rebirth, the bones she wore on her body were what people sacrificed for them to gain a new life. A restart if you will. In none of my lives had I ever met Hela face to face only spoken to her through projections made from a sun or moon dial.
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In this life I wanted that to change. That was something I began to contemplate while starting my search for aethna was to become Hela’s einherjar instead of Arachni’s, maybe later down the line I would become Arachni’s again.
“Wouldn’t that make you Hela’s marionette?” Luna reading my thoughts seemed hesitant to ask at first looking up at Hela’s statue with me. Trying not to confuse my companion I explained the differences between Marionettes and einherjars. Marionettes were still in a pact with their primordial master like Einherjar but unlike Einherjar, marionettes cannot disobey a single order issued to them. using an example, I used myself, I was Arachni’s marionette doing everything she asked which was once in the blue moon but still. Einherjar can disobey their master's orders but will receive a small sting of pain from it.
“So, they both aren’t as free as they believe?”
“Pretty much.”
Back as Artura, I knew what it meant to be an einherjar and Marionette, and yet I still took the pact that essentially made me a puppet on strings. Doing every single one of Arachni’s orders is probably part of the reason I became so hated sparking an entire civil war that lasted around a bloody decade. Not wanting to admit it to myself back then through the years of waging war causing strife becoming empress of onrath under the pact of Arachni I fucking regretted it when the civil war was coming to an end. Now it wasn’t so much as regret more the fact I hated myself for thinking of having such a pact.
“I won't be someone’s marionette again. A puppet on strings no longer.” Telling myself aloud still looking up at the statue of Hela remembering the warning she gave me that I didn’t care for. ‘Becoming a marionette will bring nothing but regret, misery and pain’. If only I had listened to her, I doubt I would’ve died the way that I did or maybe that was the fate I was destined to have in that life a being controlled by the strings of fate. Wiping away cobwebs on the statue, I reached towards an item that I had only just taken notice of. A large spear-like head shard in the colour of a blazing hot golden orange sun. To my understanding such items were called sun fragments. Items that can have knowledge or even people be stored inside however they can’t just be opened willy nilly like a door can with a key.
These sorts of fragments can take years to open however this one seemed to be partially open like something from the inside was trying to break out of it. ‘It's warm?’ holding the fragment in my mechanical hand I could feel the slight heat a lot more than if it was in the palm of my other hand. Not wanting to dawdle any longer I carried on moving whilst glancing down at the sun fragment in my hand every so often pushing mana and divinity inside of the formed crack. ‘Might be better if I don’t hold it out for everything to see it.’ I wondered, placing the sun fragment into a dimensional plane for storage.
Once it was placed inside the pocket space the motes of mana, I felt from Aethna had begun to shift to my left which meant that either she was on the move to somewhere or the motes of mana she was using had begun to increase greatly. ‘FUCK!’ it was only a possibility but when a dragon begins the steps in losing their spirit and dying the amount of mana can be greatly increased to unnatural levels. ‘Luna. Stay inside my body for now because there is no telling what Aethna will do.’ Luna jumped inside my body without a second thought as I took off running in the direction of the increased mana.
With the motes of mana that aethna was pushing out the corruption from Chernobyl was also present in those, it was incredibly weak but from the dimming colour, I could tell something was off. Maybe Aethna was dying, or I was being paranoid like normal. Through my enhanced speed through mana and divinity, I happened to travel a significant distance in seconds. Through this increased distance the motes of mana scattered even further and further apart like Aethna was travelling quickly unnaturally quick for a dragon.
Running to clear the tree line, a sudden intense heat took me overhead. Sparks of blue flames whizzed past my head followed by a booming sound of drums.
“Well fuck.” I groaned being sent several feet from the impact of a fire-infused lightning barrage that landed just behind me. Being kicked off my feet wasn’t as bad being thrown upwards. I was used to hitting hard surfaces however hitting a hard surface with a sharp hard impact was a new type of pain that I rarely felt which itself was akin to being punched in a fresh stab wound. Hitting the ground on my back in a sitting position against a wall allowed me to gather my senses quickly with blurred vision.
“How far did I travel?” I questioned aloud rubbing the lower end of my spine around the waist area. “Sixty feet no seventy feet?” my estimate was way off by at least two hundred feet from a raised edge of the forest to a plain of hard slate and volcanic cobble. By supporting my unbalanced feet I grabbed onto the rock with my mechanical hand, however my hand jerked away with a twist. A javelin of draconic lightning was plunged deep into my arm making it limp. Dead.
Bearing the pain from the lightning that was still erupting from the javelin I pulled myself up onto my feet not having support from my left arm just my right arm and the stone wall behind me. Now standing on my own two I faced the tree line where two eyes full of blood rage stared back at me, Aethna’s entire body was covered by the tree aside from the barbed tail that tore oak bark apart. Staring deep into the dragon’s blood-red gaze gritting my teeth, I slowly ripped out the lightning javelin. Even though the mechanical arm wasn’t my real arm it sure as hell felt fucking real, golden blood mixed with the black mana oil in the arm oozing onto the slate ground below me. Still staring at my old bond, I coughed up blood. Aethna moving through the trees halted as I reenacted what I had done in my past life when we fought in my life as artura.
With a thin smirk on my face, wiping away the blood on my mouth leaving a large smudge across the right side of my face. In clear sight I looked upon the remarkable body of the old and stressed dragon, the corruption in her draconic mana was still present. ‘Luna whatever happens stay inside.’ Noting to my wolf bond I began to step forward hearing only the sounds of dripping blood, wind and whipping of Aethna’s tail. She no longer recognized me not just because of my appearance but even the signature of mana, the way I walk even the amount of emotion I now use.
Summoning Evangelion to my still usable hand and covering my eyes with the black blindfold, taking on a strong stance I waited for Aethna to attack me. I knew this fight could go either way, but Aethna was a lot weaker than I therefore out the Odachi, would just be considered overkill. Taking that into account waiting silently for something to happen, even as a weak stressed, and frail imitation of her former self she wasn’t as weak as she was showing herself to be. She definitely wasn’t stupid. Dragons are a predatory species that pick their prey wisely so hiding her true strength wasn’t unnatural for her.
‘How do you bond with a dragon?’
‘You have to subdue it which is technically the easy part then you have a mental game that ends after several trials. After that I just have to name her.’ Aethna even having the opportunity didn’t attack me just moving closer, keeping hold of Evangelion somehow didn’t make me feel any safer which wasn’t helped by the gaping wound in my mechanical hand. The moment I took my attention off Aethna is when she then attacked sending me through the solid wall without a second thought. Somehow going through a solid wall of stone hurt less than smacking the ground hard whilst having an open wound.
“What a pain…” groaning I flicked my hair away by jerking my head still keeping an eye on Aethna. This action of jerking or cocking my head made a familiar cracking sound in my neck. It seems that my old dragon friend now wants me dead, the corruption no longer spreading thin but going straight to her head. Taking a deep breath, I did the one thing I shouldn’t have which was bloody rift-step. Through the ringing that continued in my head plus the blurring of my vision, I fucked up where id need to hit when I do land, instead, I connected with Aethna’s barrage of lightning javelins.
Somehow, I hadn’t expected this to happen, yet I knew either way I'd die or she would. My stupid self having the memory of fucking goldfish didn’t consider many things such as dragons having fucking tails. ‘Fucking dumbass. Now what?’ Luna asked seeing through my eyes, watching me stumble to my feet still holding Evangelion that started to flicker with golden flames. ‘Oh. Never poke the sleeping bear… don’t kick a dog while it's down or it'll bite back.’ Luna’s thought came into my head as I gathered myself using my knowledge of divinity to heal most of my wounds.
“So Aethna what happened to being respectful and not to play with your food? Want a reminder?” I laughed walking towards her keeping the blindfold on my face and covering the rest of my body in my black gothic armour. With no killing intent and a clear view, I held out my left hand, sparks of sunlight flickered which were quickly followed by golden chains that flung themselves outwards. Clenching my fingers these sun gold-coloured chains wrapped around each of Aethna’s legs about ankle height. Still not being able to see Aethna's true appearance I could only estimate where the best place to put the chains were. With enough force to shatter stars, through the enhancement of mana itself, I pulled Aethna to the ground keeping hold of her.
She no longer resisted not even trying to pull the chains off her. Slowly through the divine nature of the chains, the corruption began to fade, starting to see her appearance of a twin-horned black dragon with black scales. ‘Now she’s subdued I have to play a mental mind game with her, chess or I’ll do things out of order. Aethna you’ll need a new name.’ I thought to myself within arm’s reach of the dragon.
Placing my hand on her hard elder scales. In the current tongue of Numena, I spoke Aethna’s new name.
“Aethna from now I’ll call you Hadriel.”