Heres your chapter for today. sorry for the cliffhanger earlier. Enjoy.
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As the 2 titans screamed in pain, struggling to keep their mind sane while on the ground, all the onlookers started to move towards them. To keep them away, Kiefer chanted a quick spell, and instantly, a circular wall of fire rose from the cobbled stone path, surrounding him and his 2 titans, while causing the crowd to back away.
Wrapping and binding the 2 of them in a cocoon of his silver mana threads, Kiefer took to the skies. Before anyone could trace him in their sights, Kiefer leapt away from the port town, towards the dense jungle between the port and the northern city of Wanda, all the while enduring the painful cries of Sher and Isana.
The group of high elves just stared at their leader, unsure of what to do before General Alwin took charge.
“Lord Kiefer seems to have had a change of plans! We shall proceed as he instructed and head for Grandu continent efeective immediately! Everyone back to their stations. Raise the anchors, lower the sails! We will catch the outgoing tide to get on our way.” (Alwin)
With that command, the elves snapped back to their senses and set sail, starting their 2 month voyage towards Grandu continent. The winds were in their favour and within hours, their massive red/gold frigate could not be spotted from the docks of Wanda.
Kiefer had travelled a fair distance in the air and set down his 2 ladies in the middle of a thick jungle. Using his whips, Kiefer swung them around like grass cutter blades, clearing his immediate vicinity of trees. Using the leaves from the trees, he lay them out on the damp jungle floor and then took out 2 thick blankets from his PD, before laying his 2 titans on the blankets. They were still struggling with the pain, which seems to be subsiding. Isana was clenching her teeth, enduring the pain, occasionally moaning, while Sher was held tight in Kiefer’s threads, eyes shut and constantly groaning.
Without any warning, the 2 titans were once again overcome by a horrendous surge of pain, causing both of them to yell out so loudly, it echoed through the dense forest. Right after the yell, however, the 2 of them instantly transformed into their true forms.
Kiefer looked in horror, as the 2 titans cringed in their true forms, unsure of what to say or do to relieve them of their pain.
The white dragoness, originally large in size, spiked back with 2 large scaly wings and thick limbs was now contorting in weird angles. Kiefer watched the spikes regress into stumps along the back, the distinct dragon head becoming slimmer and smoother, resembling a snake’s, and limbs becoming thinner and longer. Kiefer could hear crunching sound reverberating from Isana, as he watched her bone structure undergo change. The scaly wings grew longer, with finger-like extensions growing from the ends. 2 more white wings began to sprout from the back, just behind her original wings. These new wings gradually grew to full size, stopping just a few metres short of the first pair. The second, shorter pair of wings also had finger like extensions and elbow joints like the first. Her tail elongated, becoming slimmer and fanning out at the tip, with leathery skin bridging the gaps between the fan spokes. She eventually stopped screaming, and let out one final roar of icy breath into the sky, before slumping forwards with a great thunk. A single drop of tear could be seen in the corner of its eye as it muttered one word, “Wanda…”
Meanwhile, the giant 100m long serpent nearly doubled in size as the scales changed colour. The missing scale on the tip of the tail grew back, but not with the dull matt grey colour it used to be. The new scale in its place was shiny and black, releasing tiny black particles as it moved through the air. The original matt obsidian coloration of the serpent’s back turned a similar black colour. The scales along each side of the body were purple in colour, resulting in a nice transition from turquoise belly of the snake to the black back. The black leathery wings started contorting, crunching in on itself and eventually receded into the back of the giant serpent. Sher was still screaming for Kiefer to help her all this time, crying streams of tears that fell on Kiefer, masking his own tears. From behind the serpent’s head, at a location where her shoulders would be, the scales started shifting apart crushing adjacent scales in the process. From the gap in between the scales on both sides of the serpent, a single white scale protruded out. Then another white scale, and another, and another, until eventually, Sher grew 2 limbs resembling giant pure white angel wings in the location where her arms would have been if she had arms. Finally, from the Joints where the wings connected to the serpentine body, a thick semicircular piece of shining purple armour plate grew, covering the joint like shoulder-pads. Each wing has elongated scales that looked oddly similar to feathers, and grew as long as her body from each side. Sher’s Face had also changed considerably, with a snout that resembled a dragon’s and her eyes turning a deep blue hue from the original void black. Her slit nostrils were now raised from her snout, with her upper and lower jaws separated by a set of newly formed teeth. Along the length of her body, sharp jagged spikes that looked like purple lightning bolts grew at regular intervals or about 20m. Exhausted from her transformation, the pain and her cries for help, Sher similarly slumped forwards, laying her head on her slightly smaller in size sister. With tears still running down her face, Sher slipped into unconsciousness, like Isana, and cried out one word, “Master…”
Kiefer was made to watch through the entire spectacle, watching his 2 closest companions suffer and writhe in agony while he simply stood there, unable to do anything other than cry for them and pray for them to be safe. Witnessing the grand transformation of the 2 titans, Kiefer was alarmed, wondering if they had gotten weaker, or if they would still remember him when they awoke. Right now, the 2 were asleep peacefully, as if the previous façade had never happened. He could do nothing but wait. Wait for them to wake, wait for them to remember, and wait for them to forgive him for being so helpless. Sher’s cries for help were still ringing in his ears, and Isana’s agony was burnt into his memory. Kiefer did what he could, setting up a smaller version of the special barrier that he had studied in Arigan, making sure nothing disturbs the 2 slumbering titans. What worried him the most, however, was what Isana had said in her pain – Wanda must have done something to trigger this episode of maniacal pain on the titans. He had assumed Wanda to be an ally, but now he wasn’t too sure.
Kiefer made a quick trip back to the port town, in the middle of the night, and realised that the frigate was gone. Asking around, it appears that the frigate had left several hours ago, just about after Isana and Sher collapsed from the pain.
Returning to his companions, Kiefer took out his red shield, and molded the orihalcom into a thin protective perforated dome around the 3 of them as an extra precaution. He then proceeded to sit down and lean against the large bodies of Sher and Isana, and just wait. Just feeling their heartbeat, listening to their breaths and wait. And for 3 days he waited without sleeping, vigilantly guarding them, before he felt the slightest movement from Sher.
As he got up to look at his precious companions, he saw Sher staring back at him, without saying anything, and spied Isana’s eyelids trying to lift themselves.
“Sher… are you still in pain? Do you know who I am?” Kiefer asked, hoping his Sher wasn’t gone, praying what had changed was only her physical appearance, and that she didn’t come to hate him.
Sher stared at him blankly, and then nodded her giant reptilian head. Without opening her jaws, Kiefer heard her reply him “Yes master. I’m sorry for worrying you, I feel fine now. Thank you for taking care of me.” Sher had spoken to him directly into his head. She seemed to have developed a new telepathy skill after the transformation. Kiefer, as shocked as he was, did not hesitate and hugged Sher’s head.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
As Sher got up, Isana finally opened her eyes, and with a blinding blizzard, transformed back into her human form, showing no visible changes in her physical appearance. However, she seemed considerably pissed at something, eyebrows knitted, lips upturned into a frown, and almost seeming like she was about to cry.
“Isana?” Kiefer called out. “how’s your body Isana? Is something wrong?” Kiefer inquired, worried.
“No, im fine. I feel more powerful now. But-“ Isana was cut off mid-sentence when Kiefer ran over and hugged her, more tightly than he’s ever done before. He’s never shown this much intimacy with Isana, even during her little games to increase physical contact with Kiefer. She was pleasantly surprised, and felt a warm ooze, coating her icy heart. She hugged him back and reassured him, “I’m fine. I’m just fine now.”
After calming down, Kiefer started a fire going, Isana in human form and Sher still in her true form. Sher kept pestering Kiefer to make the fire bigger because she could barely feel the heat from such a small fire and the cold early spring wind is blowing against her giant body. Finally, Kiefer released his mana particles to coat Sher’s enormous 200m body and slowly destroy them to convert to thermal energy, keeping it up and slowly depleting his mana reserve.
“So, Isana, you seem to know what happened. Could you explain?” (Kiefer)
“Of course my dear.” Isana paused, checking Kiefer’s reaction to her calling him affectionately. Seeing Kiefer smile, Isana continued, “One of us died.one of the 9 titans that existed since the start of Aioa has died today”
“Do you know which one?” (Kiefer)
“It is either Wanda or Drigor. During the transformation, every titan is shown memories of the the last moments before the death of said titan. What I saw, what we all saw was a fight between Wanda and Drigor.” (Isana)
“How can you so sure that one of them died? Maybe they escaped?” (Kiefer)
“No that’s not possible. When a titan dies, all its powers are divided amongst the remaining titans, majority of it going to the one that killed it. We all know this because just a decade after the 3 avian titans descended to Aioa, Grandu killed his own twin brother Gondor, and its powers were split amongst the 7 of us, before finally, the excess power from Gondor gave birth to 2 serpentine titans, Desir and his sister Shearwood. We all experienced the same feeling that time, but this would be the first for Shearwood.” (Isana)
“I see, well it’s good that nothing bad happened to you both. But how shall we find out who died?” (Kiefer)
“That’s easy. We return to Arigan.” Isana declared, with a face full of motivation. “But first, how to get Sher back down to size?”
Just as Isana spoke, Shearwood suddenly began to shrink and eventually, ended up as a small black and blue snake like it used to be, but with large furry white wings. She had a single tiny talon at the end of each wing, which she used to climb up Kiefer’s body. She snuck back into the breastplate and looked up at Kiefer with her blue eyes, finally speaking to Kiefer in his head, “Sorry master, I learnt so many new things from the transformation that I took me some time to get to my ability to transform.”
The winged Sher just barely fit into Kiefer’s breastplate as Kiefer looked at Isana and nodded. Together, they took to the skies and sprinted towards Arigan once again, praying the General Alwin would be able to complete their mission in his stead.
The trio arrived at Arigan’s royal palace in the middle of the night. The guards were alarmed at first, but seeing Isana and Kiefer, they resumed their duties. Isana raced to the palace treasury and using ice to freeze the hinges, she broke down the doors in a hurry, triggering the mana alarms. Right in the middle of the room, on the red velvet cushion, was Wanda’s fang. Kiefer and Isana approached the fang cautiously, and reached out to inspect it. However, just as Wanda touched the very tip of the fang, it crumbled into fine white dust. The dust swirled around in a circle above the cushion, finally enveloping Isana, and then disappearing.
Isana fell to her 2 knees, staring at where the fang used to be. Tears started rolling out of her emerald eyes, and she started wailing. Kiefer just knelt down beside her and hugged her, as she cried through the night, in the full audience of the high elf royalties. As she cried, her tears froze, dropping onto the cold stone floor and smashing into tiny pieces, never melting.
[Back inside their old room]
“Wanda used to be so carefree… She wouldn’t care about fighting, only actively avoiding fights… the 3 of us were siblings, but always fighting, between me and Drigor, and between Wanda and the 2 of us. She would always try to stop the fights… why would she go and attack Drigor? And Drigor that bastard, to actually kill his own sister for power.” (Isana)
Isana was muttering to herself, only Kiefer and Sher could hear her. Wanda’s fang crumbling was an indication that Wanda had ceased to exist. Drigor would have obtained a majority of her power killing her. They knew Drigor had been in a fight with the 3 avian titans for a long time. Their inhabitants had waged war after war, lasting several millennia, costing billions upon billions of lives within Drigor’s territory. What they did not understand was why Wanda had willingly gone to seek out her brother, and why they ended up fighting to the death.
Without warning, Isana stood up from her bedside, her usual bright emerald eyes now dull and cloudy. Fists clenched so hard her already pale skin went paler. Then she said out loud, full of hatred and disgust, “That bastard. I will avenge Wanda. I will kill him, and take his power for myself. I will see him die, and laugh, even if I have to trade my own life for his.” She prepared to take off through the window, only to be held back by Kiefer’s threads.
“Let go of me Kii. I need to do this. I need to find out what my sister died for. What she did to deserve being killed by Drigor, and in the end, take his life.” Isana yelled back, shifting her shoulders as the mana threads constricted her and pulled her back towards the bed.
At that moment, Kiefer kissed her on the lips, and only parted their lips after feeling Isana’s shoulders fall. This was the fastest way to get her to calm down, to make her think of something else. The kiss wasn’t very good, just pressing lips on each other, but in a way, it felt innocent, to Isana, this was a first.
“I’m sorry Isana, you weren’t thinking straight. I may be terrible at expressing my emotions, but you need to know, that through the time I’ve spent with you, I’ve come to understand you, to care for you, and need you. There’s a saying from my home world that goes ‘Do not give promises when happy. Do not make decisions when angry.’ I hope you will discuss this with me. We are in this together, after all we’ve been through, I deserve the chance to help you.” (Kiefer)
Isana, blushed, only nodding her head in silence, returning to her bed as Kiefer released her.
“We will change our plans. Head towards Drigor. It will be at least 6 months before General Alwin makes it back to Arigan. We have at least that much time to make things right. Isana, we will rest tonight, and set out tomorrow. I still need to test out your new abilities, and find a way to coordinate our fight. From what you’ve told me, Drigor is powerful, and is only stronger now that he has most of Wanda’s power. It may take all 3 of us to defeat him and we will need to work on teamwork.”
Saying that, Kiefer calmed Isana down, while Sher poked her head out of his armour and nodded her head at Isana, assuring her it will be alright. Kiefer’s plans to introduce technology would have to be put on hold. Isana is more important than some assignment a random ‘god’ gave him.
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Just FYI, this arc is coming to an end in a few more chapters. you'll know when the next arc begins, It will be opened by Kiefer's notes(2/3), followed by the actual release. This first arc is titled - The learning phase.
Next Chapter - The Coordination and the War