The wizards gathered atop the plateau, deposited one after the other by strikes of lightning. They approached their injured titan leader, who had climbed out of the Wyvern's nest and now sat leaned against the roots of the singular redwood that crowned the plateau.
"The Wyvern has been retrieved," one of the arriving wizards said, visibly concerned about his leader's condition.
"Did you find the egg?" The Titan asked.
"No, master, we thought you--"
The wizard cut himself off as all eyes turned to the sky. The clouds parted and the sun spilled out. Descending from the heavens was a mountainous dragon, brilliant red scales lit by the gleaming sun. The redwoods below bent and cracked beneath the force of the winds from its wings, and the ground quaked like a cataclysm beneath its feet. Its head loomed high above them, staring down with a fearsome, righteous gaze.
"Fin-al-ly!"
The voice boomed louder than any thunder, and the weaker of the wizards collapsed to their knees clutching their reverberating skulls. Those still standing flung lightning at the dragon, each strike landing amongst the scales like harmless static shocks. Their leader climbed to his feet but did not strike, knowing their hopes of escape had left with the clouds and the ground on which they stood would soon be glass.
"How?" he shouted as loud as he could, even his booming titan voice was small compared to the dragon's.
"Your ritual betrays you," the dragon spoke in a rumbling growl that rolled through the skies, "the fate of the Millennium Mandate turns dark today."
"You're too late!" the Titan shouted back, "our task here is complete, our deaths will mean nothing!"
"Correct," the thin, scaled lips of the dragon's mouth twisted into an animalistic smile, "but I have observed, and for the first time in centuries, I have a lead to follow."
The Titan faltered for an instant -- fear filling his eyes. Then his face contorted to a snarl.
"Then you die with us!" The Titan turned his head to the skies and shouted with all his power, "Emmanuel! Grant me strength!"
He held his arms wide, reaching out to the now distant storm clouds to either side. Bolts of lightning shot out of the clouds, connecting with bolts that reached out from the Titan's hands. His eyes glowed white and crackled with sparks as his veins illuminated a bright blue. His flesh began to turn black and boil, and he spoke with the overlapping voices of a dozen souls.
"DIE BY THE POWER OF THE INEVITABLE LORD!"
A deep laugh escaped the dragon's mouth, the reverberations caused even the Titan's heart to skip a beat out of sync. From the laugh came a broiling flame that rolled out of the dragon's mouth. The dragon looked down on the plateau once more, opening its jaws wide and pushing aside the rolling flames with a beam of dragon fire. The Titan clapped his hands together, channeling a concentrated blast of otherworldly lightning that reached out to meet the dragon's beam. The energies collided in the air and erupted in a blast of fire and lightning that sent shockwaves as far as Giantrock City.
The lightning reached the dragon's mouth, crackling down its throat even as the fire spewed forth. The beam punched through the explosion and hit the plateau like a comet, sending splintering cracks through the cliffs. All life in its wake was eradicated in an instant, but the beam didn't stop. The rocks glowed red and melted, dripping over the edges like a boiling pot. With the last of the beam came a hideous shriek from the dragon that echoed across the forest and into the grasslands and desert beyond.
When the beam of fire finally stopped, the remains of the plateau were left as brightly glowing magma. The dragon's scales were marked with jagged black lines that splintered out from its throat and smoldered with dark black smoke. With a powerful beat of its wings, the dragon launched and took flight. It soared over the forest, then the Craggs, climbing higher to disappear beyond the peaks of distant mountains. The clouds closed in over the forest once more, but the storm's strength was a fraction of what it had been. No more lightning struck, and no more thunder rolled.
----------------------------------------
Iris awoke with a groan. The once dark woods were now illuminated with the pale glow of an overcast sky peeking through every crack in the canopy. The rain was gone, and the leaves weren't dripping as much as she would expect after a heavy storm. The forest was quiet besides some birds that had begun to sing, though they sounded quiet and distant.
With more grunts and groans, she pushed herself up against a tree trunk. Blood had soaked through her bandages, but the fact that she was awake was a good sign that the bleeding had slowed. Every inch of her body ached, and she discovered trickles of blood from her ears that had now dried on her skin. She realized then that the singing birds weren't quiet, but that her ears were once again damaged. She slumped her head back against the trunk in exasperation, immediately regretting it when pain reverberated through her head.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
She didn't want to move yet. She wasn't sure she even could move yet. The last thing she remembered was the sun, and then a gust of wind. Before that, she had battled the lightning wizard. Her eyes shot open at that realization, and she quickly scrambled to pull her journal from the bottomless bag.
IRIS ORION
Hero Rank, Level 9
Experience Points: 112 / 7390
Progress to next level: 1.51%
Recent Accomplishments:
Powerful foe slain: partial bonus experience 2750 awarded.
Champion slain: bonus experience 10,000 awarded. Feat awarded.
"Holy shit!" Iris exclaimed as she read the last number.
For all her fretting over the purposeless killing, that number almost made it feel worth it. Then her stomach twisted at the thought that she was no different than the man she had killed. She pushed down the complicated mix of emotions and moved on to the newly added section at the bottom of her stat sheet.
Feats:
Fearless Resolve
Your fearless resolve in the face of a much more powerful foe has granted you the following benefits:
- +5 permanent bonus to Spirit
- Reduced fear response to perceived threats
She had come across references to feats in her reading, but never an explanation of what exactly they were or how they worked. The journal didn't elaborate further on the reduced fear response effect, and she decided to withhold judgement on the reduced fear effect until she had an opportunity to test it out -- which she hoped wouldn't be soon. The bonus to Spirit was already reflected in her Attribute Scores, and she had 10 points to spend. She took her time reflecting on her last battle and deliberating what would have helped her the most.
While it was still true that Vitality would make little difference in the short term -- given the caliber of threats she was facing -- all the small wounds were certainly adding up, and it felt like she rarely entered the next battle fully recovered from the last. She was slow, too, and knew all-too-well she didn't stand a chance at keeping pace in battle without her blips. For the first time, though, the Intellect attribute caught her attention. From what she understood about Intellect, it would likely help her think faster on the fly and more effectively under pressure, which would have been immensely valuable against the wizard. Ultimately, she decided to add one point to strength, and split the remainder evenly amongst Vitality, Speed and Intellect.
Attribute Scores:
- Vitality : 34
- Strength : 39
- Speed : 29
- Intellect : 29
- Spirit : 44
Unspent attribute points : 0
With her level ups out of the way, she flipped through a few random pages, trusting the journal to know what she was looking for. Sure enough, the journal landed on a newly revealed entry from her mother.
Dear Iris,
I've become more certain that these entries will be of great importance to you. I realize I've been quite unhelpful with my information so far, so allow me to clear up what I can.
I know the things I know because of my first ability, Inexplicable Knowledge. I learned that pretty early on, once I figured out how to actually activate this journal and not just write in it. The knowledge is overwhelming at times, and rarely makes any sense, but that's only part of the problem.
I'm sick. It started the day I got my powers, and it's only worsened since. It's not a sickness of the body, or the mind as I had suspected, but a sickness of the soul. The wizards here, for what little help they've been, have told me that my soul is not wholly present -- that it's here, with me, but also somehow somewhere else. Any attempts to get further explanations on how exactly that works have been frustrating and fruitless. This journal calls my Special Ability "Temporal Division," it doesn't elaborate further, but it seems too much of a coincidence for it not to be the cause of my apparently divided soul. I've spent many days in the libraries here and still haven't found answers, but I plan to keep looking for as long as we're here.
We have at least made headway in our quest for the prophecies -- that's what we're looking for in the Veiled Catacombs, some ancient prophecies that are apparently important. Don't get me wrong, it's exciting to be a part of some grand important quest, but I'm not even level 10 yet. For the God's sakes, I'm Eighteen! Not to mention something's wrong with my soul, and it'd be nice if I got a chance to figure one thing out at a time. Anyway, the quest's going well, and we'll be departing from the Shining Peaks for the catacombs sometime in the coming week. I'll update you again soon.
Mary Orion, 969
P.S. I have a gift for you. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to give it to you yet, but I know you're supposed to have it. It's served me well on my journey so far and even saved my life a few times, it's definitely the best walking stick I've ever had.
"Yes!" Iris shouted, launching upright from her slouched posture, "It was you!"
Her heart raced and blood flushed her skin. Tears flowed freely and dripped past a full faced smile, "it was you!"