Chapter 494: Kaleidrog
…Above the city of Hollow Shade…
“Oh, come on now, is that all you have to say? After all this time?” Ananta’s smile turned into a spiteful scowl, “Is that all you have to say to an old friend?”
Kaleidrog stared at her, sorrow in his eyes. “What would you like me to say?”
“Oh, I don’t know. What do you say to the woman who saved your life? Whom you betrayed. Whose husband you murdered. Whose queendom you destroyed. Whose world you poisoned.” She glared at him, “What do you say to the woman you failed to kill, Kaleidrog?”
“Ann, what happened to Vismarya—”
“Don’t you dare say his name! The dragon lords murdered him, your own king!” She clenched her jaw, “Why?”
Kaleidrog looked away. “He loved you, Ann. The dragon king would have sided with you over his own people. That’s why we—”
“No, not because of me, he’d have sided against the dragon lords because unlike all of you bastards, he was good. Vismarya valued all life, he’d never have turned around and attacked his own allies!”
“At the time we thought we had no choice. We were afraid the Vesir Queendom might discover our existence was too dangerous to be left alive…”
“You mean I would have discovered the truth about your draconic nature?” Ananta spat. “Did Vismarya know? Did he know—?”
“He didn’t. Only a few of us dragonlords had learned the truth. We thought it best not to inform him, since he had already married you. We… We had to strike first, it was the only way to ensure our survival.”
“Is that how you justify murdering your king? Or is this simply you trying to console his widow?”
“I am not trying to justify my past.”
“Then why are you here, Kaleidrog? Why have you come to interfere?” she hissed.
“I don’t want to fight you, Ann.”
“Is that why you brought your entire brood with you? To not fight?”
“...I know you’ll never forgive me, how could anyone? But it’s been over six thousand years, the war is over, Ann. We don’t have to fight each other.”
“Over…?” she broke into laughter, her eyes full of rage. “Over!? The war never ended. I am still here! I am still fighting for my world!”
Kaleidrog faced her angered gaze solemnly, “Ananta, the reason I brought my brood was to stop the dragonbanes you unleashed back into the world. But I did not come to fight you, only to talk because you know as well as I what’s truly at stake. If we do not work together… we could all die.”
Her eyes grew cold. “I died long ago.”
“Ann,” the dragon lord sighed bitterly. “What happened after Unildyr left. I regret everything—”
“You don’t get to say that!” she shouted. “You don’t get to feel sorry!”
He bowed his head. “What we did to you and your husband was unforgivable. It is the greatest mistake of my existence and I carry that with me every day.”
“Mistake…? Mistake!?” her voice cracked painfully.
Storm clouds began to brew in the night sky, jade lightning crackling throughout them.
“You think stabbing Vismarya and me in the back was your greatest mistake?” Ananta asked in a still voice. “Tell that to the children of my people! They were sleeping in their beds when your dragons attacked our cities! They were asleep when you laid fire to their homes!” Tears welled up in her eyes. “What do you think they felt when they awoke screaming in agony as they burned alive engulfed in your dragonfire!”
“...It was a surprise attack, it was only meant to destroy your cities’ defenses. The fire was never meant to spread to— The children… they were never the target, they were—”
“—They were innocent!” she screamed.
Shame filled Kaleidrog’s blue eyes.
Ananta scowled at him. “Tell me, how did it feel to betray the titans, your king, your friends, the world? Did it feel good when you succeeded in destroying everything they fought and died to protect? I can only imagine how the dragonlords must have felt, basking in their own glory.”
Kaleidrog stared at her in silence, unwilling to justify his actions.
She smiled venomously, “I wish I had been there; at the height of your glory, just so I could see what happened next. Tell me, Kaleidrog, how did it feel? When Calamity after Calamity DECIMATED your people, until the few that were left scattered into the winds, hiding in the dark! Tell me, Kaleidrog, HOW DID IT FEEL!?”
The dragonlord stayed silent, but he refused to look away, to avoid his part in all of this. And yet, his willingness to accept her anger only infuriated her more.
She sneered. “I wish I could have seen it, the day death took your wife from you. To see your face the moment you lost the person you loved most.”
Anger flared in Kaleidrog’s expression, but he forced himself to bury it.
“I may not be able to kill your spouse, but I can still avenge mine,” she snarled.
“You’re right… My crimes are unforgivable. But my people, the younglings born into this new world are not at fault, they are innocent.”
“Innocent…?” she repeated the word as if it were poison on her lips.
“Yes. You once fought against your own father to save dragonkind for that very same reason. So if killing me alone will end this, if my death will avenge the dragon king and all the others, if it will give you some sort of closure, then I will not resist.” Kaleidrog exposed his neck.
“You’re serious?” she asked in quiet surprise.
“Yes,” he said without wavering. “As I said before, you and I know what’s truly at stake here. We are running out of time.”
“I’ve seen the toll it's taken on the new generations of dragons,” she noted. “They’re growing weaker, their powers are deteriorating.”
“They are not the only ones who’ve been affected. Things will only grow worse. I know I am in no position to ask anything of you, but I beg of you, my queen,” he bowed, “Please, save my people. I cannot do it alone, but perhaps you can.”
“Kaleidrog, you—?” she laughed hysterically. “You misunderstand me. You think you’re choosing to sacrifice yourself? For your brood? No, old friend. You are going to die today because I willed it so and then I will slaughter your precious people, every single last one of them!”
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Lightning erupted from the clouds in branches of jade light and struck Kaleidrog. A radiant sphere materialized around the elder dragon god’s body. The branches of lightning crackled around the golden shield, sending small cracks through it, but they were unable to break through.
Ananta’s eyes widened in astonishment.
Kaleidrog stared at her through the radiant shield. “So this is your choice…? Very well. If war is the only way to stop you, then I will fight. Not for myself, but for the innocents still left in this world.”
“Innocents? You keep saying that word, as if by repeating it will somehow make it true,” Ananta growled.
“What of the people down there? You saw your own city and its people burned alive. What of the innocent children down there in Hollow Shade? Do they not deserve a chance?”
“You can’t even see it, can you, Kaleidrog? There are no innocents here. Your people are the reason for the Schism! None of you chromatics are innocent, not the dragon lords of old, not the younglings in your brood, and not the thousands down there with their mixed chromatic blood,” she pointed to Hollow Shade below them. “They all deserve to die!”
“...Maybe we’re not innocent,” he admitted. “But for their sake, I will fight you just the same.”
Ananta cocked her head to the side, “Who said I was going to fight you?”
Kaleidrog frowned, “What are you—?”
A grey halo shot down from the clouds and exploded in brilliant destructive energies atop his radiant shield. The cracks in the shield gave way and the entire magical sphere shattered. Kaleidrog threw his wings over himself for protection as the blast sent him flying back.
A sapphire dragon swooped down from the clouds and flew up next to Ananta. She was smaller than Kaleidrog, but her appearance was similar.
“Zavinti…!?” Kaleidrog gasped.
Ananta smiled wide, “Allow me to introduce you to my loyal slave, the dragon goddess, The Azure Serenity, Zavinti.”
“What have you done to my daughter!?” Kaleidrog roared.
“I told you, death took your wife before I could. So I settled for what you have left.” Ananta patted the dragon goddess’ neck, “Kill him.”
Zavinti, her eyes glazed over, dashed forward without hesitation. She channeled True Brown; berserker magic flowed through her veins, empowering her body.
“Wait, Zavinti, stop, it’s me!” Kaleidrog shouted.
His daughter slammed into him and sank her fangs into his shoulder. Kaleidrog roared in pain and tried to shake her off, but her claws dug into his side and refused to let go.
“How does it feel, to die at the hands of a person you trusted?” Ananta called out.
Kaleidrog grimaced and tried to pry his daughter off him. “My precious… Sapphire… stop…! I don’t want… to hurt you!”
“If you want to stop her, you’ll have to kill her!” Ananta taunted. “Shouldn’t be hard for someone like you, right?”
Kaleidrog ignored her words and channeled True Purple. Mind-Binding tendrils wrapped around his daughter’s body. “Wake up, Zavinti! Please!”
She slowly released her jaw and looked up at her father.
He smiled softly, “My Sapphire.”
“Father… Die.” Zavinti held him tight and opened her maw wide, dragon flames igniting at the back of her throat.
Kaleidrog closed his eyes, a tear slipping down his cheek. “I’m sorry, my Sapphire.” He had failed her. He had let her go out of the Rupture Mountains by herself. It was his fault she had been captured and her mind broken by Ananta. He deserved this.
A scarlet dragon broke through the clouds like a blazing comet and crashed into Zavinti, knocking her away from her father. She roared angrily and breathed dragonfire at the scarlet dragon, but he held her tight and refused to let go. She thrashed about, spewing dragonfire out chaotically into the night sky.
“Reldros!?” Kaleidrog shouted in surprise.
“Father!” the scarlet dragon yelled as he battled Zavinti, “I’ll deal with my sister! You kill the monster that did this to her!”
“Thank you, my son,” Kaleidrog whispered gratefully. He glanced up at Ananta and growled in a deep rumble. “I am done trying to reason with you.” Three grey halos formed around him, spinning larger and larger.
The titan queen bared her teeth, “There he is. Finally.”
~~~
…Hollow Shade… Commoner District…
Dragonfire burned across the streets. The valley warriors had split off in every direction, running for their lives. Two emerald dragons split off and chased after them, breathing flames wherever the warriors went.
One of the dragons swooped low and her chest swelled as she took a deep breath. Nokti glanced back at the dragon in a panic. “Get down!” she screamed.
Black mana flowed through her veins. Shadow tendrils surged outwards, latched onto the corner of a building, and yanked Nokti forward. The dragonfire erupted behind where she had just been.
Nokti staggered to her feet and saw her fellow warriors thrashing in the flames, before falling still. “No…” she mumbled.
The emerald dragon turned to the vampiress and opened her mouth. Nokti channeled Yellow and threw her arms in front of herself. Yellow protective scales formed across her brown skin.
The dragon’s chest swelled, flames igniting in her throat, and breathed out, blood? The emerald dragon choked as a barbed tail penetrated its chest from the back. A dragonbane, twice her size, roared from behind and slammed her into the ground.
“Vorphyrux…?!” said Nokti. She recognized the dragonbane, he was by far the largest of his clutch. The one blessed by Unildyr, her Master had said.
With the barbed tail still inside her chest, the emerald dragon tried standing up. Vorphyrux stuck its hand into her mouth and ripped off her lower jaw in one quick motion.
A painful screech echoed from above. The second emerald dragon swooped in and fired a grey halo. Vorphyrux snatched the halo in his hand and crushed it. The destructive energy exploded into his clenched fist, smoke sizzling from between his fingers.
The emerald dragon gasped in surprise and turned away. Vorphyrux lifted the dead dragon with his tail still embedded in her chest, and flung it at her fleeing brother. The dragon cried out and tumbled out of the sky. Vorphyrux dashed at him in a blur and reached him before he landed.
The dragonbane snatched him out of the air and body-slammed him into the ground. Before the stunned dragon had a chance to react, Vorphyrux clamped his jaw over the dragon’s head and crushed the skull, spraying blood and brain matter everywhere.
Vorphyrux breathed in deeply and drained the souls from the two corpses. Silvery wisps flowed out from the dragons and into his awaiting maw. White stars burned brightly at the core of his oily black eyes.
“Vorphyrux?” Nokti called out hesitantly.
Whether he didn’t hear her or simply didn’t care, the dragonbane did not react to her words and finished his meal. He then spread his wings and took to the sky, sending a wave of dust everywhere.
Nokti coughed and cleared the dust around her with a simple Yellow wind spell. She looked up at the night sky and her jaw went slack in terror and awe. The dragonbanes were flying over the city, battling twice as many dragons in a storm of magic.
Flashes of jade lightning flickered in the dark clouds above. “Master…” Nokti muttered. Caligo was fighting too.
She wouldn’t fail him. Nokti glanced around the flaming wreckage. As the dust was beginning to settle, she spotted a few warriors jogging towards her. The dragons had dealt a devastating blow to her battalions, they had probably killed several hundred of them in a matter of minutes. And even though the majority remained, they had been scattered across the district.
They needed to regroup if they had any hope of accomplishing their goals. If the battalion commanders were still alive they’d gather their men and women and finish destroying the barracks before heading to the enemy’s medical encampment.
“General Nokti, are you alright!?” a warrior called out.
“I’m fine. Search for any survivors in the area. If they’re too wounded, leave them. We can’t afford to stay out in the open like this.”
“Yes, General— Argh!” A bolt of lightning struck the warrior in the chest and ripped his torso apart.
“We’re under attack!” yelled another warrior.
“Protect the General!” a third screamed and ran towards Nokti, but just as she reached her, a lightning bolt struck the warrior in the neck, severing her head from the body.
“Shit!” Nokti dove to the ground.
Several more bolts hurled out from the cloud of dust and struck down her remaining soldiers.
Nokti cursed under her breath and reinforced her protective scales with more yellow mana. Just her luck, to come across an enemy blue mage capable of storm magic. She scrambled to a nearby ruined house and glanced out from behind the corner. Her scarlet eyes searched the wreckage for the attacker.
As the dust and smoke settled, she spotted a silhouette walking towards her. It was a young woman, she realized, barely older than a teen if even that.
Nokti frowned, drew her ax, and stepped out from behind the house. Shadows darkened under her feet and formed several tendrils.
The folly of youth. The young girl should have stayed hidden, waiting for a chance to strike. But out here in the open, Nokti could easily react to her storm spellcasting and evade.
The young mage spotted the vampiress closing in on her and gasped. Nokti bared her fangs and rushed her. The girl stared at her, unmoving, but there was no fear in her eyes, there was… excitement?
Something was off.
Nokti stopped her charge and took a step back.
“I found you…” the girl muttered.
Nokti frowned. “What?”
Nora Azol narrowed her eyes and smiled coldly, “I found you, murderer.”