Leviathan

Saurian Nebula

A portal snapped open in the umbral side of the planet Leviathan’s orbit. As the large spiraling magic gateway wound itself open, massive red talons spilled from its surface, gripping the edge of the portal. A massive red scaled snout poured out as Ominek’s crimson scaled form climbed out of the portal, then gestured to close it. He swam lazily in the high orbit of Leviathan, his binding father’s home. Below him sprawled the massive magma seas of the planet. Ominek rolled slightly, tilting his wings to bask in the star's warmth.

Below the magma seas, a shadow slowly gathered as the massive bulk of Leviathos rose and erupted from the surface like a breaching whale. Only instead of tumbling back into the magma seas, the Fire Sea dragon rose, its limbless serpentine body perfect for traversing below water or, in this case, molten magma. Leviathos’ massive form spiraled into orbit and coiled around his bound son. Ominek did his best to school his emotions to neutrality, trying not to tremble in the presence of his father's massive toothed maw. It wasn’t uncustomary for Leviathos to reward failure as his personal meal. But it was the blazing yellow and red eyes that burned right into him. Being eaten and his magic and soul reabsorbed back into Leviathos sent a chill down Ominek’s back scales.

“Tell me what happened, my child,” Leviathos’ voice rumbled in Ominek’s mind. The magnitude of it made his teeth rattle. The intensity was so strong it almost caused him pain. Almost.

“I conducted your attack, just as you asked.”

“And what of your success?”

Ominek’s head lowered, exposing his long neck. “I destroyed most of the village, but I think some remained. A divine presence interrupted the battle to support the survivors. I fled to avoid retribution.”

Leviathos’ massive head bobbed up and down in approval. “Gooood. Your next task is to traverse to Hidros. There, you will ensnare as much of the humans as you can. Once you have accomplished this much, I will relay further orders. Do you understand?”

Ominek hesitated, “I-yes. But what about what happened to Hoshun?”

“A simple diversion, but also a potential end state solution. Time will tell, but it would appear that your success was never possible. So we accept the next best result. You have drawn the Federation’s best response force as far as from their territory as possible, while you will begin your covert assault on their administration at Hidros.”

“What will we accomplish by hitting yet another obscure colony world?”

“There is a potential weapon to be secured deep within Hidros, but to do so you must be able to move without scrutiny, and to deploy the locals in your defense. Unlike the assault on Hoshun, this will be akin to a takeover. But make no mistake, my son, we are in a foot race, and while you will have a head start on the Federation, it will not be great. So waste no time. Do you understand?”

“I do.”

“And one last thing. If done correctly, this will be the final blow to the Federation. Crush their morale. Secure the weapon. And we win the war.”

“As you command, father.”

“I will send you the relevant details when you arrive.”

Leviathos turned and plunged himself back towards the magma oceans of his claimed world. Ominek noted that the entire length of the fire sea dragon never left the world. Just how long and how immense of a dragon was his father? It terrified him to ponder the power at his father’s command. He gave one final bow of his head to his father, then turned and drew several runes to create another portal, waiting for the magic to resolve and spiral open the portal.

As it did so, he darted into it quickly. Eager to begin what he hoped would be his last mission to destroy the Federation and take over the sector.

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Hidros System

Hidros Orbital Control Station

In the shadow of Hidros’ lone moon, a portal opened that disgorged Ominek’s draconic figure. He swam lazily in the void, eying up the station. His first aim: to secure the skies of the planet. If he could control inbound and outbound traffic flow, that would allow him to perform his work uninterrupted. As the giant red wyvern glided through space towards the station, he began the morph spell, and reverted himself back to his dark-skinned humanoid form wearing a sleek black suit.

Ominek took a short moment to admire himself in the station’s reflection. His long black mane of hair remained combed back down his head. His dark brown eyes stared back at him, and he even flashed himself a toothy, smug grin. Many dragons weren’t capable of mastering the humanoid morph very well. Failing at the smaller details like hair, skin texture, eyes, and teeth. Ominek however, took pride in his skill, no, his unmatched talent at morphing himself to appear like a human.

He paused at the station's airlock and drew a short augmented portal spell, mixing elements of shadow, mind, and earth together, then completed the spell. The runes mixed and shot into the airlock door, turning it translucent and glowing in lavender and pink. He drifted forward, floating through the door, which resolved itself once he passed.

He clasped his hands behind his back and whistled softly as he walked, pausing at a map of the station's interior posted on the bulkhead. He assumed it was to help its occupants navigate the massive metal can. He sensed no magic within the station at all and sighed at that. The Brotherhood of Man and their aversion to magic. They might have been better prepared for his incursion if they weren’t so aetherphobic. He might have felt guilty about the chaos he was soon going to unleash on these poor fools. Not that they were ill prepared. They weren’t even capable of fathoming the level of fucked they were about to be.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Rounding a corner, he came upon his first security checkpoint and found two uniformed guards who gave him suspicious looks. “Who are you? Where’s your boarding pass?” One guard said.

“I don’t see any ships scheduled on the roster. Who are you? How did you get here?” The other admonished as they both drew pistols.

Ominek smiled, holding both hands up and giving them a disarming smile. “Gentlemen. Really. Is this how you want to greet an old friend?”

The two exchanged confused looks.

“If you’ll permit me a moment to explain.”

He executed a quick series of hand gestures; he started with Mind, then added Soul and Earth, then repeated the spell for the second guard. When he finished, the executed spells launched two mind altering bindings into the guard's foreheads with a small poof of aetheric soul magic. If the station had anyone with the magic ability to detect such shackles, they’d see a wreathe of aetheric runes slowly spinning around the guards’ foreheads. Their demeanors relaxed, and they holstered their guns.

“Sorry, Lord Ominek. We didn’t realize it was you. How can we help?”

“I need to speak to whoever is in charge of this facility. Could you guys help me out?”

“Right away, Lord Ominek.”

The two guards took the lead, and Ominek fell in behind them. Hands clasped behind his back again as he walked along, continuing to whistle his tune. The walk was actually shorter than he expected. They paged the administrator's office, the name plaque read “Alvin Patton”.

A short, round man’s face appeared on a small screen on the wall next to the door. He was balding but the bit of auburn hair he still had left appeared well groomed, with crow’s feet rimming his eyes and those quaint little glass and plastic seeing devices perched atop the bridge of his nose. Glasses? Yes, glasses. He looked annoyed. “What? I told you no guests while I’m eating.”

One guard cleared his throat. “Sorry sir. But there’s a VIP here you need to see.”

Before Patton could protest, the guard keyed in the door key, and opened the office up to Ominek leaving Alvin Patton seated at his desk with a half eaten meal on his plate and a bewildered expression that quickly soured out.

“Have you lost your damn minds?” Alvin shouted, his jowls jiggling with rage.

Ominek strode in casually, giving the guards a thankful nod. The door slid shut behind him as he entered the office. He quickly scanned around the office and again noted no magical defenses or detection devices. What a pity… for him. Ominek turned his gaze to the man and sat on the edge of his desk, picking up a photograph of some landscape.

“Who are you? What is the meaning of this?” The man demanded, though he hadn’t pushed his meal aside yet. That especially amused Ominek.

“Who am I? We can get to that in a moment. As to the meaning of this? Why, I’m here to conduct some business. Important business, you see, and I need to make sure I have your undivided support and attention to see it through.”

“I rarely take bribes. I have all the money I need,” Alvin retorted indignantly.

“Oh, I’m sure of that. But unfortunately, I’m not here to ask. I’m here to take your support.”

Alvin’s brow furrowed in confusion. His arm reached for a low drawer at his desk, and Ominek pounced upon the rotund administrator. He yelped weakly, pinned by the dragon in human form. Ominek allowed his eyes to shift temporarily to reptilian eyes and focus on the man before returning to humanoid again. Alvin’s face lost all color.

“Oh, my god…”

Ominek rolled his head to the side. “No. Not yet, anyway. But close,” he cooed softly with a grin. “Now, I need you alive. So I’m going to promise not to simply eat you as long as you promise not to do anything foolish. Is that a deal you can agree to?”

Alvin’s head bobbed up and down, crumbs of his meal tumbling away freely from his jowls with the movement. Ominek backed off of the man slowly, keeping himself positioned between Alvin and the offending drawer.

“Now then, be a good chap and hold still, hmm?” Ominek asked as he drew several complex spells next to each other. Each using several mind, soul, and earth runes. When he finished, Ominek allowed himself a moment to savor his craftmanship. Some of his finest soul shacklings. Only where with the Guards he simply rewrote some of their cognitive functioning. With this, he was leaving the Administrator's mind completely alone, and instead, shackling Alvin’s body to his will. The spells resolved and darted into Alvin’s chest, one after the other. Ripples of mind, soul, and earth energy radiated from Alvin’s heart.

Alvin’s face shifted into silent terror, and Ominek smiled. He leaned close to the short, round man and sniffed slowly. “Nothing tops the smell of a freshly cast expert soul shackle. That’s some of my finest work to date, but I think not for very much longer, hmm?”

He circled Alvin, who appeared to struggle with himself. Like a man trapped inside his body. “You’re trying to fight it, I can tell. But unfortunately, it’s not something you can simply overcome. No, I have full control of you. What I want, you will do. That is the only way you make it through this.”

“Then just kill me now.”

Ominek’s brow cocked upward as he turned to face Alvin. “Is that resolve? And here I didn’t think you had it in you,” Ominek said, shifting his gaze to the half eaten meal on the plate. Some kind of meat sandwich, by the look of it. But they had cooked the meat. A trait he never understood of humans. “As I said previously, I need you alive. There are tasks I need you to do for me. And when you’ve done them, I’ll let you go. You won’t have to share in the same grisly end I have planned for the poor wretches living below.”

“You’re one of those evil dragons, aren’t you? From that nebula.”

Ominek turned and gave him a toothy smile, allowing his teeth to shift to points for a moment. “Quite astute, but slow on the uptake. Now then. We’ve covered why I’m here, your soul shackle, and who I am. A Sauridian. Let’s get to work, shall we?” He gestured for Alvin to sit, and the man sat down, looking as though he didn’t want to.

“That’s a good chap. Now, I need you to empty this station for me. Every man. Yourself included.”

Alvin’s face contorted with confusion. “Why? and how?”

Ominek smiled, waving his hand casually. “Why? So I can control your orbital airspace. As for how? Tell them I’ve come and devoured many of your people. That you heroically led an exodus to the surface and that you need rescue.” He paused when it seemed like Alvin might finally understand his task. “You can do that for me, right?”

Alvin finally nodded, and Ominek patted him on the cheek, “Smashing. Now, chop chop. We’re on a time crunch and I don’t want to burn too much time unnecessarily.” He clapped his hands for emphasis, and Alvin sprung to action, reaching for a small device that he spoke into that projected his voice throughout the station's interior.

“This is Administrator Patton. We’re under attack by Sauridius forces. All occupants of the station are to proceed to evac points to exit the station. All ships will be re-tasked with evacuee procedures. Once all berths are occupied, the remained will use the escape pods. Patton out.”

Ominek clapped enthusiastically for Alvin’s performance. “Well done. Keep that up and I may just keep you in my pocket. An inside agent in the Brotherhood of Man is always a good trump card to keep around,” Ominek said, tapping his chin thoughtfully with a nod. He delighted in the nonverbal horror that spread on the man’s face. Sliding off the table, Ominek marched for the door, patting Alvin on the head.

“I’ve work to do on my own. Notify me when the station is clear, and you’re safe and sound on the surface, won’t you?”

Alvin nodded with a great deal of effort, and Ominek smirked at that. They all resisted at first, but regardless of how long it took, they all realized it was useless in the end. He always got what he wanted.