Kamil was on the balcony of the manor. This was the only exposed part of the mountain manor where anyone could access outside without having to go through the main entrance. He was looking at the horizon where the sun was slowly rising. He wasn’t alone. There were Cezary, Flora, Heiga, and finally Nestor. He was about to embark on the final journey to confront the Dragon of the South. This was the day.
This is it, the point of no return.
Taking a deep breath, he turned around to face them. His face was devoid of emotions, and he wasn’t exactly nervous. In fact, there was a certain calmness in his mind.
“Thank you, everyone,” he said. “Thank you for your service so far.”
“Please…, don’t speak as if this is the end,” Flora said, tears forming in her eyes once more. Heiga approached her immediately to comfort her after holding her shoulder from the side.
“He will return,” she told her. “Mark my words.”
I don’t know how you can be certain, but whatever.
Both women’s belly had slight bumps at this point, a clear indication that both were pregnant.
Man, I couldn’t have picked the worst time for this… but then it’s not really my choice.
Cezary kneeled down. “My liege, I am certain that you will do whatever you can to ensure the good ending you have hoped for.”
The good ending I have hoped for, huh…
There wasn’t one until recently in fact. I had accepted his fate until Flora told him otherwise.
“I will certainly.”
Whatever happens, my goal is to return. Simple in concept, hard to actually accomplish.
“Levitation,” he said in an almost whispering tone, and his body began to float. His eyes were fixed at Flora who was looking back for a brief moment before turning around in the air. “Let’s get this over with,” he said to himself as his body began to accelerate. His destination of Deltalago or what was left of it at this point. According to Heiga, nothing but a giant hole existed in the former capital of Estana.
“... When I was Tom, I was just a man with no one to back me up,” he said to himself. Of course, there was no one around to listen to him.
“I died alone after witnessing my wife committing suicide due to our two sons perishing in fire. This time I am not alone although I am going to the battle alone.”
He chuckled.
“I do think I was also rather calm back then.”
He knew what he was doing when he begged elementals to take his life in exchange for a miracle. He knew he was done for either way, thus he chose to go out with a bang although he ended up having tens of arrows stuck in his body and went down.
As he was flying by Makarlika, the new capital of Estana and one of few last standing cities of the nation, he saw a familiar sight he had encountered when he flew to Elsos. Waves of black dots had the city surrounded. However, since the city had a cliff on the south and a mountain on its east as natural barriers, defending was much easier and drained far less energy on the local folks.
“Well, they seem to be doing alright.”
They sort of were. They were slowly being pushed back, and Makarlika was the only city standing between the hordes and his own kingdom. Should the city fall, the monsters would have direct access to Ceres. The king of Estana was fully aware of this and had consolidated soldiers and supplies to the city to withstand the siege as long as possible. Additionally, supplies were being dropped from airships. The entire nation was focused on holding the city for as long as possible even if it meant sacrificing other settlements.
“I would give them a hand normally but …”
As much as he wanted to grant them some reprieve, he couldn’t afford to cast magic unnecessarily.
“I am sorry, father-in-law. Hang in there for a little more.”
And he flew past the besieged city and proceeded to his destination. Another familiar sight came to his view soon, which was a field that was devoid of anything and was almost pitch black. This was the deadland.
“To be honest, I am not sure which is better, the deadland or desert.”
Neither supported life anyway. When he reached the general vicinity of Deltalargo, a strange and ominous sight welcomed him. A very large hole, about a hundred meters in diameter was brimming with dark gray, ash-like, clouds. And, unlike in the North, the sky was very clear. It was as if it was reversed in the South. Instead of the clouded sky, there was clouded ground.
I suppose that’s where the dragon is residing?
When he descended down for a closer inspection, a beam of dark clouds shot out all of a sudden, which he barely managed to dodge.
“What the?!”
Even before he could manage to regain balance in the sky, more beams of dark clouds shot out.
“Whoa! Whoa!” He was forced to make acrobatic movements in the air to dodge. “Time to keep a distance!”
As he flew backwards, something was emerging from the clouded hole. The dragon was slowly emerging from the dark clouds.
“Hmm?”
He was given the general description of the dragon of the South. However, what he was seeing was completely different. The dragon didn’t appear to have a solid shape anymore and looked to be made of the clouds itself. Where its eyes were supposed to be, there were only a pair of ominously glowing dots. As it slowly ascended from the gaping hole, the clouds, as if having a mind of its own, followed it closely, essentially looking like a gigantic cloak.
“Hurricane -” Summoning his magical bow, Kamil drew his arrow. He didn’t expect his first shot to have any meaningful impact, therefore he conjured only wind elementals. “Arrow!”
A magical arrow that was shining brightly in green launched toward the dragon at once, making an ear-shattering sound. He expected the dragon to evade, but it didn’t. In fact, the arrow flew through the dragon simply. Furrowing his eyebrows, he sighed.
“Nothing’s easy, huh…”
He realized immediately that he had to give it all. Fighting tactically to conserve his magic was an unlikely option. The dragon, in retaliation, opened its mouth and roared, releasing black smoke in his general direction. His attack was like a flamethrower; it wasn’t accurate, which meant that it was fairly easy for Kamil to simply fly out of its path to avoid.
“It does not appear to have a physical form…, does it?” He wondered aloud. “That is quite a predicament…”
He had never encountered such a monster previously.
‘The dragon of the South has rotted,” a voice told him. “It has decayed.”
It was Vass’ voice, he realized.
“Decayed? Why? What does that even mean here?”
‘It has consumed too many lives too quickly,’ Ludwig replied this time. None of them would have the exact number of casualties that Estana had suffered. However, land-wise, about 90% of their territory was gone. “I am uncertain whether ‘decayed’ is the right word. It’s more likely that it has developed. That perhaps is the final form.”
That must have been a lot of people…
“So, what must I do?”
‘It has become essentially darkness itself. There would be two ways to combat it. One would be the power of the light. The other would be the power of the four elementals. You have the latter,’ said Vass.
“Okay…, that doesn’t sound hard but…”
A flying dragon was hard to hit. Even a grounded dragon was hard to hit in his own experience. He needed to get it down to the ground to reduce its mobility. Then he realized that he could try homing arrows.
“Alright, let’s try this. Elementals!”
A blue translucent eel appeared, curling up around his neck. An orange translucent salamander appeared on his left shoulder. A few wind elementals appeared around him, and finally a light gray rocky golem, that was the size of a toddler, appeared on his right shoulder. As soon as the four representatives of the four elements appeared, his body began to glow slightly in darkness.
“I thought I’d shine,” he said.
“You are,” Vass replied. “You’ve embraced darkness to contain holy power before. Darkness is your element.”
“In the end, light and darkness are the two sides of a coin; they are essentially the same,” Ludwig added.
Nodding along, he drew his magical bow once more, and a simple line was drawn which was swirling busily with the four colors of elementals. The dragon, upon noticing that Kamil was preparing to fire a shot, accelerated directly toward him, reading its claw to grab him. He was forced to abandon what he was doing and take an evasive maneuver.
This is something I’ve noticed with the previous fight with the dragon…
It was that his big spells took time to cast. He racked his brain to come up with something new, and Anita’s whip had left him some impression before when they were attempting to cure the deadland with a potted Macomaco plant. The whip appeared to have a decent range and was equally fast.
“Maybe…” Mumbling, he imagined a whip, just like the one she had and then -
“Elementals of Earth! Grant me a whip!” A whip made out of soil appeared in his hand. Then he whipped it at one of the dragon’s legs, latching onto one of its hindlegs. “Pull!” He exclaimed while pulling the earthy whip down. Given the size differences between a human and a dragon, Kamil pulling the dragon down in the air shouldn’t have been possible. However, when he did the pulling motion, the dragon was actually pulled down, spiraling it downward toward the ground. The dark cloud dragon roared as it plunged down onto the ground, making a loud impact as well as leaving a subtle crater. However, as it plunged down, its dark cloud cloak detached from its back and morphed into many, many, wasp-like, creatures. They launched themselves toward him.
“Wind elementals! Whirlwind!”
Strong gust of wind, forming a narrow but tall tornado, originated from his body, blowing away the creatures.
“Earth elementals! Root! Grasp!”
Roots made of soils emerged from the ground and grabbed onto the four legs of the dragon tightly. The hurricane arrow may have not been able to hit the dragon, but the earthen roots were grabbing onto the legs successfully.
“Hold onto it!” Shouting, he pulled his magical bow once again to conjure the four elemental arrow. Noticing his intention, the dragon didn’t bother to struggle free and opened its mouth directly at Kamil, releasing its ash breath.
“Whirlwind!” Hoping to disperse the ash breath, he cast the spell. However, he could tell that it wasn’t having much of an effect and had to fly away in just a nick of time. A corner of his coat that touched the arh breath had turned black and simply fell off. By the time he was prepared to fire the shot, the dragon had broken free already and was flapping its wings to fly. Pointing at the dragon, he shouted.
“Deny flight!”
He wasn’t sure such a command would work. He just didn’t want it to fly again and simply shouted out loudly. Unknown to him, it was entirely possible to make such a command and make it stick. Flight required air, and wind elementals were directly responsible for manipulating air. As a direct result of his command, the air in the vicinity felt strange. It was hard to explain; it was as if viscosity of air increased substantially. It felt like walking in thigh deep water and it applied only to the dragon which was still flapping its wings but far slowly.
“Fireballs!”
Four giant salamanders appeared around the dragon. These were similar to the ones that attacked Lux under his command. Although “giant”, they weren’t as large as the dragon itself since they were only one fourth of its size. Opening their round mouths at once, each of them began conjuring giant swirling balls of fire. The dragon roared and struggled to free itself, wiggling its head and tail but to no avail. When the four large balls of fire struck the dragon, massive explosions knocked everything out around it, including the salamanders themselves, which vanished as they were flung into the air. Kamil didn’t wait for the smoke to clear and drew his arrow of the four elementals. Four strands of colors, each representing an elemental, were swirling around a dark arrow.
“Got a name for this, elementals?”
‘Cosmic ray,” said a voice.
“Very well, cosmic -” He was just about to fire the shot when he felt a blunt impact on his side; something had struck him.
“What the -” He saw a humanoid figure made of the dark clouds, and it lunged toward him in the air and kicked him on his side. There were several more of them rushing to his way.
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“Trying to earn time so that your master can get loose, huh?! Very well! Vass! Ludwig!”
Two wind elementals nearby him morphed into the image of a lizardman, Vass, and the image of a young adult, Ludwig. They began to combat the incoming immediately, casting off various wind spells. Just as Kamil prepared the cosmic ray spell again, the smoke cleared and a skeleton dragon appeared. The fireballs had apparently removed the dark clouds around the dragon.
“Wait, maybe I missed it the first time?”
He felt that it was entirely possible that his first shot went through his cloud-like flesh. Either way, he had a job to do. Drawing his magical bow once more, he paid extra attention to his surroundings this time. Ludwig, Vass, and other elementals pending off the other smoky humanoids.
“Earth elementals, once more! Root!”
More roots made of soil emerged right below the skeleton dragon and tied the dragon down to the spot, leaving no chance for the dragon to break free while he prepared the cosmic ray spell.
“Take this, you motherfucker!”
Once again, the four strands of elemental color twirled around the magic arrow which was just a simple line of glowing darkness. Kamil himself was also glowing in the dark as well, radiating a rather unpleasant aura.
“Cosmic ray!”
A beam of darkness, surrounded by ocean blue, bright orange, light brown, and finally light green colors shot down at the dragon. Unlike his hurricane arrow, the cosmic ray was quiet as if it did not possess any physical mass. The skeleton dragon, having been tied completely down, could only tilt its skull to see the cosmic ray coming right at it.
“Darkness heed my call: Death,” it said with a husky voice.
And then everything went blank for Kamil.
When he regained consciousness, he found himself in complete darkness, yet he was able to see his own body clearly. He recognized instantly that he had been here before.
“I am dead?”
“Technically, yes,” said a feminine voice. Two spheres of colors appeared a distance away from him. One was pale yellow in color and was shining. The other looked like a blackhole with a pale yellow glow ring, distorting light around it ominously.
“The God of Life and Death?” He assumed. “One of you looks different, though.”
During his judgment, both Gods looked alike; both were shining spheres of light.
“We are,” they replied in unison, and the masculine voice continued, “You are not supposed to be here.
The feminine voice added, “The dragon used yet another death spell.”
“The trigger has been pulled,” both said in unison.
“The trigger?”
“When both dragons cast a death spell on the same specific Betrayer of the Wheel, then the time has come.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The Betrayer of the Wheel, you are to ascend,” said the God of Death, the owner of the masculine voice and the blackhole with a pale yellow ring on its rim.
“The Betrayer of the Wheel, you are to ascend,” repeated the God of Life, the owner of the feminine voice.
“And you shall go back to your own world, for you were not supposed to be killed by the death spell,” said the God of Life. “Your job as an elemental king awaits.”
“Wait, I have questions, lots of them.” Having his hand out extended toward them and the other on the bridge of his nose while shaking his head and sighing, he hurriedly stopped both Gods from speaking.
“You have the right. Ask away,” said the God of Death.
“The trigger? Why did the dragons cast a death spell on me even when you were specifically told not to?”
“The dragons are our pawns. Whether they obey the rules, it’s down to them because they have their own consciousness,” explained the God of Life. “If both dragons chose to disobey the rules we’ve set for them, it means they were bested so soundly that they had no other recourse but to cast the ultimate spell.”
“It is so because it is their duty to stop betrayers of the Wheel,” added the God of Death.
“If they were bested soundly, it means the elementals chose to unite under a single banner, which in this case is you. When elementals choose to unite, it opens a door for the material plane to be connected to the elemental plane,” explained the God of Life. “As long as the specific elemental king exists. This is what the elementals want right now.”
“What do you mean by ‘connected’? What will happen to my world? And the elementals want this outcome?”
“Ordinary people will be able to see elementals far easier. Elemental magic will be empowered even without the casters' emotional status,” said the God of Death. “You will soon find out why the elementals wish this outcome.”
“The physics of your world might be altered as well. It has always been different whenever the two planes connected. We shall see how kind of world it brings,” said the God of Life.
“Are you saying this has occurred before?”
The God of Life replied, “Many times although the frequency is rare. It happens once in 50,000 years on average.”
“Okay….” Sighing with both of his hands now on his waist, he just realized that he was fully dressed as well. He wasn’t naked like before. “What is going to happen to me?”
“You are ascend; you will become an elemental,” both said in unison.
“Yes, you’ve said that. Let me rephrase…” He took a moment to continue. “I wish to continue my life as a human. Is it possible?”
He wanted to be with Flora. He wanted to see his children grow up. He wanted to play with his children. There were a lot of things he wanted to do but was denied because he died young.
“An elemental king is half human and half elemental. That is how he is able to bring both worlds together. You will gain an ability to shapeshift, meaning you will be able to morph into your current shape,” explained the God of Life.
“However, you will not age. You simply will not have a lifespan to speak of. The day you die will be the day you do not wish to exist from the bottom of your heart,” added the God of Death.
He wasn’t sure whether to be pleased. One side of him was glad that he would be able to continue his life as Kamil. Another side of him was confused as hell and worried rightfully so.
“Is the Age of Darkness over?”
“Yes, since both dragons have been defeated,” said the God of Life.
I didn’t exactly defeat them, though.
Indeed, he didn’t deal the final blow. Both dragons were defeated by breaking arbitrary rules of engagement.
“There is something I don’t understand. You said I am to ascend. Yet, you also said that an elemental king is someone who is half human and half elemental. Which is it?”
“Under normal circumstances, an elemental king is half human and half elemental. In your case, however, your mortality has left you given your unique circumstances of embracing the darkness to contain the light. You still have some human left in you but not much,” explained the God of Life.
“In the end, it does not matter. The mere fact that you are ascending without having to be judged is enough for you to become an elemental king,” said the God of Death.
“I don’t really get it, but it doesn’t really matter in the end, does it?”
“No, it does not. Unless you have any more questions, we will send you back now. We’ve frozen the time when the dragon cast the death spell,” said the God of Life.
“You can freeze time even?”
“We are the creators of the world. We control everything,” said both Gods in unison.
He grew an urge to ask something. “What do our existences mean to you?”
“Entertainment,” replied the God of Death promptly.
He chuckled in response. “Entertainment, huh…”
“We ask you. Do you wish to return?” asked the God of Life.
“I would like to know where Fionara went if I am permitted your answer.”
It had been lingering in his mind for a while. After all, she sacrificed herself to protect him from the first death spell, and she was his wife for Tom. The woman never really caught a break in her life, it felt like.
“She has been allowed to be reborn as a human. She has yet to be reborn, however,” said the God of Life. “Her soul is waiting for her slot in the wheel.”
Gulping, he contemplated whether to ask and did ask eventually after a short moment. “Will you allow her to be born as my daughter?”
“No, that is against the rules,” said the God of Death.
He couldn’t help but feel disappointed even though he didn’t expect much.
“However, we will make an exception,” said the God of Life. “Consider it as compensation for the inconvenience of being cast the death spell twice.”
“Really?!” His eyes went wide in excitement.
“One of your current wives will give birth to a triplet. Two males and one female, the female will have the soul of Fionara,” said the God of Life.
Since Heiga was believed to have more than one baby in her belly, he believed that it must have been her.
“But three? Wow.”
“The mother is fated to perish during the childbirth, but we will spare her life as well,” added the God of Death. “Be grateful.”
“I am grateful,” he admitted willingly and gestured by lowering his upper body slightly with a palm on his chest. While he had no love for her, it wouldn’t have sat right with him if she was to perish during childbirth. She had one job to do and was going to complete her job at 300% mark by giving birth to two princes and a princess.
The king of Estana will be exultant for sure.
The man had most of his children killed during the chaos and had only one daughter left. He must have been worried sick to stomach for God knows how long. Now, his legacy was going to be more than secure.
“Now, be go-”
“Please wait! I have just one more question!”
He knew that this was going to be the last time he was going to have a meaningful conversation with the Gods. It was time to ask away even if it meant him being somewhat disrespectable.
“Please tell me what happened to Karsten. What was the result of his judgment?”
The God of Life answered after a brief pause. “His karma was net positive.”
“Even after what he has done? I thought you allowed me to be reincarnated with my memories intact because you agreed that he went too far.”
“Not true,” replied the God of Death. “First of all, we do not abide by your moral standards. In fact, since we are in control of everything, we try not to judge anyone or anything at all.”
“We’ve set rules to abide by therefore,” the God of Life added.
“What rules were applied when judging him?”
“Did he believe what he has done is right? If so, how deep was his conviction? Did he have doubts?” The God of Life said.
The God of Death, then, continued, “He was fully aware of the consequences of his actions. He knew that many would die. Yet, he performed the deed.”
“You do realize what it is like to be in his shoes, do you not?” The God of Life asked.
The responsibility of a leader was the answer. Not everyone could be saved. A leader had to do what he believed was the most beneficial to his own people. In fact, he was asked to do the same by Cezary. And, in a way, he had done what Karsten had done by caring for the people of his kingdom only. He let many perish to cover for his people.
“Lawful misdeeds,” he whispered to himself with a solemn look.
“Nothing is perfect,” the God of Life said softly. “All you can do is do what you believe is right. This applies to even us, the supreme beings.”
“It is not our right to punish creatures that had done what they believed was right from the bottom of their hearts. We may be Gods. We may be their creators, but their decisions are theirs. Their circumstances are, again, theirs,” The God of Death said firmly. “We can only judge their character and we’ve found little faults within his character.”
“Nothing in life is ever clearly black and white. Now I ask you the final time. Do you have any further questions?” The God of Life asked.
Kamil got down to a knee and placed his palm on his chest while looking at them. “I thank you for everything you’ve done for me although I am sure that you were simply playing by whatever rules you have.”
“Correct,” replied both Gods in unison. “Be gone.”
What he saw next was the skeleton dragon although it was petrified at this point. Regardless, the cosmic ray spell was already on its way and completely destroyed the skeleton with a gigantic explosion that was colorful.
“.... It is over,” he whispered and closed his eyes slowly. “It is over,” he repeated. Then he felt dizzy momentarily and could see his hand, or rather his entire body, becoming semi-transparent. All of a sudden, the clouded sky roared thunder, forming a circle of dense clouds, then a god ray was upon him at which point his figure started to disintegrate into hundreds of glowing green butterflies. However, they immediately reattached themselves into the shape of Kamil.
“.... I see.” He had a look of understanding. “I now see why you want an elemental king. I understand now.” He was given a glimpse of desires of many, many, elementals. They all had some form of lingering attachments from their past lives. Some of them wanted to be closer to his descendants but could not because of restrictions. Ludwig was a good example of this. Some of them were simply too bored and wanted a change. Some of them sought further knowledge and wanted to interact with mortals on the material plane. The bottom line was that many of their desires had been accumulating and had reached a breaking point. With an elemental king and both planes now connected, the elementals would have a recourse to their issues and desires.
“When will the land heal?”
“It will take many, many, years,” Ludwig replied, who was looking like his younger self. His image was clearer now although still translucent. “But it will heal slowly and surely.”
“Lord Ludwig, what will you do now?”
“Help my granddaughter of course. Come to think of it, she has no way to tell who’s the real members of the Mesurii. Only I do.”
“Is your memory back?”
“Mostly. It feels good to feel whole.”
“Live your life for now, Elemental king. The elementals will be busy for a while, so they won’t bother you for the time being,” said Vass.
“You are not a human!” Ludwig exclaimed with his index finger pointed at him.
“Indeed, I am a lizardman.”
“What is a lizardman?!”
Looking at Ludwig and Vass having a casual conversation was a breath of fresh air. Until this moment, he realized that elementals didn’t really communicate with each other. They felt … passive and hollow.
“Not anymore,” he said to himself with a smile. “I am going home.”
“Before you go, I will be going away for a while,” Vass announced.
“Is that so? Should I ask why?”
“Nothing to hide. I’ve located some of my lizardman elementals. We are gathering together and having some conversation.”
“Enjoy. A lot of catching up, I suppose.”
“Indeed, I will see you later.” Having said so, Vass turned back into a green butterfly and flew away.
“I shall be going as well,” Ludwig said. “Time to visit Loukia.”
“See you later as well.”
With a firm nod, Ludwig turned into a wind elemental also and flew away. Just like that, all elementals went their own ways, leaving Kamil completely alone.
“A different world, eh.”
When Kamil landed back on the same balcony he departed from earlier the same time, Flora dashed toward him with tears falling out of her eyes like a waterfall. She ran into his chest, and he embraced her tightly.
“Is it over?” She asked, crying.
“It is over.”
She let it out real hard and loud.
“It’s over, Flora. We can raise our kids together,” he told her gently while caressing her golden hair. Looking ahead, he spotted Heiga by the entrance.
Fio is in her… I swear that I will look after her this time.
“I am back, Heiga,” he told her with a bright smile.
“I did say you’d be back, didn’t I?” She replied with a confident voice.
Chuckling, he responded, “You certainly did.”
“Milord!” Nestor rushed in with his breath at his neck. “You are back!”
“Lord Nestor, the Age of Darkness is over. Rejoice.”
With both of his arms in the air, he exclaimed joyfully, “Huurah!”
“Where is Lord Waszak?”
“Ehm…” Nestor hesitated as he lowered his arms.
“Lord Vogel?”
“He departed with the air force toward Deltalargo. He was determined to assist you.”
He couldn’t have helped me anyway.
The battle may have not lasted more than an hour but the scale of the battle was very much legendary. Kamil cast spells in such a scale and prowess rarely seen before. Likewise, the dragon’s attacks would have been fatal to anyone with no way to protect themselves from it.
“Well, he will be back soon, I suppose. Let us go inside. Lord Vogel, prepare a feast!”
Nestor bowed at once. “Of course, my king!”
“Time to eat!” Heiga said gleefully, cracking her fingers.
Eat as much as you want, Heiga. You’ve got three kids in you.
“Flora, stop crying. Let’s go. Only happy days await.”
“Y, yes… But… my face is a mess…”
Laughing, he let her stay in his chest while walking together inside.