Tarixi led him along the corridor toward where her own remains lay, floating through the air without the stereotypical ‘bobbing’ one might expect to see in popular ghost portrayals. Instead she moved through the air as if it were solid ground. Her even gait and purposeful stride guided them both evenly and without deviation toward her target — whatever it might be — and only when she reached the skeletal remains of herself and her comrades did she pause.
“I never thought I would die like this,” she admitted while she surveyed all that remained of herself and those she stood with. “None of us did, I suppose. It was a distinct possibility, especially later in the war, but…”
“How long were you at war?” Aurelian asked as respectfully as he could, his eyes moving between the introspective Echo and the remains she regarded with her large, round eyes. Compassion cost him nothing, and Echo or not, he could see she was feeling something.
“Centuries. It’s… difficult to parse the time in a way that is easily understood. We regarded time as malleable, not linear. Chronomancy had made us less absolute in our reckoning of reality.”
“Chronomancy? Like time travel?” He asked with a surge of eager interest.
“No, no, not quite,” Tarixi said with an amused look, “we could only affect grains at most, and only within the scope of our own selves. It was more that we didn’t feel time as acutely as others. I cannot fully explain it in a way that makes sense.”
Aurelian settled as she clarified and nodded, both disappointed and slightly relieved.
As fun as time travel would be, he also understood how incredibly bad it could go.
“But yes, centuries. Every turn of every hour felt… Tense. All the time.”
“Turn?” He asked curiously. It was a strange phrase to his ears.
“Yes. A turn. A minuteglass?” She clarified questioningly while miming turning something over. “We used minuteglass to tell time at its base, then an hourglass for sixty minutes, and a sunglass, moonglass, twilightglass, duskglass, dawnglass…”
“Wait wait wait. Just hold on.” Aurelian said with a sense of bewilderment. “You have different measurements for each section of a twenty-four hour period?”
“Of course we do, for when such things are needed, but to do so for every moment? That would be foolish. We only had them for the use of exactitude. A cycleglass contains exactly twenty-four thousand grains of sand, and turns exactly on the second the last grain drops in order to signal the new day, with markings for dawn, day, midday, dusk, and night.”
“Right…” He muttered. “You track the twilight hours as independent here, too.”
“Of course. Twilight is a time of great power for communing with the Eternals.”
“The Etern—? No, nevermind. Okay. Thank you for entertaining my questions.”
“You are welcome, Aurelian.” Tarixi said with a look of continued curiosity, though she didn’t ask the question that appeared to be lurking in her mind, and instead refocused on what they had initially been discussing. “But yes, the war raged for centuries. Too many to count, it feels like. I was born into the war, and eventually it claimed me as it claimed my forebears. The only points of consistency were our rulers.”
“The Imperator and Imperatrix.”
“Correct, and the Royarchs and Vanarchs and Pentarchs beneath them each.”
“The wh—? No, again, nevermind.” Aurelian said as his Iron Will flared and he controlled his rampaging tangential curiosity. “That can all come later. Didn’t you have something to show me? A weapon or—or something?”
“Not a weapon.” Tarixi corrected with something like a sigh, though she nodded. “Yes, and it is good you reminded me. I was…—” She glanced down at the skeletons quietly and then shook her head “—...it hardly matters. Come.” Without another word she drifted past the collection that was once herself and her friends and moved until she hovered before a seemingly innocuous section of wall some five metres behind them.
Aurelian joined her after skirting around her and her friends respectfully, his eyes appraising the wall curiously. “It’s a wall?”
“No, Reclaimer, it is not just a wall. This entire palace is riddled with secrets, and this is one of the most important. There are many locations identical to the one I am about to show you, and they all lead somewhere most important.”
“Okay, so secret passages connecting the interior framework?” He asked as casually as he could.
“You… How did you know that?”
“Not as original as you might think, for someone from… Well, from where I am originally.”
Tarixi’s eyebrows rose with a look of impressed interest, “your people must be great engineers.”
“Something like that.” He said with a shrug and dismissive wave. “But we can talk about it later. How do we open this? Secret panel? Pressure plate? Passcode?” He turned to the wall, “open sesame!”
Nothing, of course, happened.
Tarixi did however look at him as if she was concerned for his sanity.
“It’s a…” He sighed and shook his head. “Sorry, please continue.”
“Yes… well…” she glanced at him again in mild confusion before continuing “...the wall here is controlled by an access rune, linked into the runic choir that maintains the palace’s integrity. You have no doubt seen some element of it, given your philology skill. Admittedly I am somewhat rankled that we are considered ancient mysteries, but I will ignore that given the circumstance. If you look here…”
The spectre gestured to where a curvature in the wall’s patterns seemed to rise like a cresting wave. Aurelian leaned forward and pushed his enhanced vision to its maximum as he attempted to discern exactly what set it apart.
“...you will find subtle deviations in the stroke and significance of the patterning. It correlates to something akin to punctuation, after a word or phrase of significance. In this case the term ‘Passage’, in the loosest common translation.”
“Is that what we’re speaking? Common?”
“It is.” She confirmed. “Though I didn’t see it in your language list, which is passing strange.”
“Nephilim things, maybe?” He asked distractedly as he examined the rune. “Hey I think I sort of see it?” He reached out to trace the rune as he spoke, “like… subtle bold strikes akin to sea foam from a crashing wave, right? And a little bit of seaspray too.”
Philology is now Level 4!
Philology is now Level 5!
Aurelian didn’t need the chime or alerts to tell him he’d been right, and Tiraxi nodded at him. “That is correct, yes. Now to activate it, you must introduce it to blood keyed to its harmonics.”
“How does that…? You know what, nevermind. I’m sure that makes perfect sense in this world.”
“How does blood correlate to harmonics?” She persisted despite his dismissal. “It’s quite simple really; a Soul is a song, Aurelian. A song within a chorus larger than any of us can know. There are many scholars that seek to understand it, this concerto of the universe, but in truth its immensity is beyond our proper comprehension. All we can do is interpret but a fraction of its melodies, harmonies, beats, and rhythms and apply them to our comprehension of the Prime Material.”
“Yeah it all just sounds like hippie wind chimes to me,” he muttered, “but I get it.”
“What is a hipp—?”
“Forget it.” He waved her off. “So I have to cut my hand and touch it?”
“Not strictly speaking, but that is the usual method certainly.”
Aurelius nodded and pulled one of the multiple weapons he’d stashed in his belt, taking up an older dagger — its edges still perfectly sharp, surprisingly — and cutting his palm shallowly. His health flashed in his vision but he ignored it, and instead pressed his hand against the cresting wave. His regeneration would close the cut soon enough, anyway.
“Okay.” He said after nothing happened. “Now wh—?”
Before he could speak further the door abruptly lit up with veins of red-gold light, rushing outward from the point of contact and threading through an entire network of runic symbols that had been perfectly hidden upon the surface of the stone. The pattern emerged like the missing piece in a puzzle, or the last and most important frame of a film; filling in an emptiness that Aurelian had only noticed subconsciously, and was now thrown into stark relief.
“Woah.” He said with quiet appreciation of the spectacle before him as it unfolded.
“Such wonder for things we considered so simple.” Tarixi murmured with a quiet smile on her features. “And this is but the appetiser. Tell me if you receive any alerts, please.”
Aurelian gave her a thumbs up but was too focused on the wall sliding back and away to notice her puzzled expression, and subtle attempt to replicate it for herself.
The now-opened wall section led into what appeared to be a small landing perhaps 3 metres square, with a set of stairs on his immediate left that spiralled down into utter darkness.
“Not big fans of light, are you?” He muttered.
“Step inside.” Was all she said.
Aurelian glanced at her apprehensively but did as she asked, and stepped cautiously over the imagined boundary line and into the small landing. The moment he did, a message populated his vision.
Access to Restricted Section Detected
Scanning for Authority
. . .
Authority Not Found
Preparing Coun̶͇͖̭͋t̷͕̿̂e̷̪͇͈̒̽̉r̵̤͈̳͠ͅm̴̹̺̥̼̽̽̕͘ẻ̶̳̼a̵̛̻͊̽̀s̷̰͋́̉̽͜ǚ̴̼͋r̷̗̟̪̒͠ë̶̡̳̣̟́̀͘s̷̭̣̊
SECURITY OVERRIDE INITIATED
TITLE DETECTED: RECLAIMER
TITLE SUPERSEDES ALL PRIOR AUTHORITY
REGISTERING ENTITY ‘RECLAIMER’ AS ALPHA-ONE ACCESS
ACCESS REGISTERED
WELCOME, RECLAIMER
“Well I received the messages you spoke about,” Aurelian said with a glance at Tarixi, which was promptly followed by a blink of surprise when lights abruptly flared to life below his feet. A quick glance down and he clarified that it was actually a system of runes, each one scripted in the same manner and shape: a cross between an Omega, a wing, and a stylized Z. Each one burned upon a step, and cast a warm golden glow upward from where it sat.
“Okay. That would be the lights, then.” He said in a chagrined voice.
“Indeed. Now let us descend.”
“The door?” Aurelian asked with a glance at the open passage.
“It will shut when our proximity is no longer detected. Come.”
Aurelian spared another glance for the opening but decided to trust her and followed as she floated downward. The steps were carved of some sort of black stone, and appeared to be built into the bedrock upon which the palace, as she’d clarified the complex to be, was built. The curvature of the spiral was gradual but present, and each stair would have fit four people across with only slight discomfort.
While he descended he kept one hand on the balustrade to his left, taking note of how the columns and rail were carved from the self-same rock in a demonstration of exceptional artistry. The Elyseans had, it seemed, done nothing half-arsed. The sound of the door above sliding closed and slamming shut with a dull thud helped him relax to a point, though the descent into what was still relatively impenetrable darkness save for the stairwell gave him… well, a primal sense of unease. He didn’t even feel comfortable speaking, for fear of disturbing something. Anything.
Iron Will is now Level 17!
If not for his Iron Will working overtime, and Tarixi’s presence, he would likely have been more than a little terrified. There was something massive about the area into which he was descending. A sense of scale and immensity that even through the darkness he could discern with absolute certainty. He was not merely entering an access path or some sort of small chamber, but a cavernous and excavated area that could have probably fit several apartment complexes.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
So long was the descent that eventually Aurelian’s trepidation turned to boredom and he once again started speaking to Tarixi. “How was all this built?”
“Magic.” She answered simply. “The best Magisterii working their hardest.”
“That word again. Magisterii. Is that like Magisters? Mages?”
“More or less.” Tarixi confirmed. “They served many roles within the Empire. Some were profoundly powerful battle magi, and others were dedicated to the scholarly arts.”
“How many types of magic are there?”
“Ten.” She answered in a tone that took on a decidedly more comfortable tenor. She seemed to enjoy educating, he noticed. She likely would have made an excellent teacher. It made him even more piteous that she had died in a war she had never chosen. “There are the elemental powers of fire, air, earth, and water and their various sub-designations and branches, each of which often involves a combination of one or the other.”
“Like fire and water for steam, or air and water for ice, or fire and air for lightning, earth and water for mud, fire and earth for glassmaking, et cetera?”
Tarixi glanced back at him with a mix between surprise and a look of impressed pleasure. “Yes indeed. How did you know?”
Aurelian shrugged. “I took chemistry.”
“You mean alchemy?”
“I… No, don’t worry about it.” He said with a wry smile. “Please continue.”
“Hmm…” Tarixi said with a curious eye, before turning around and resuming her lecture. He had a feeling it was not the end of it, though. “After the elements we have the spiritual powers; life, death, and nature.”
“So, like, healing, necromancy, and druidcraft?”
“In a way.” Tarixi agreed with another hint of surprise to her voice. “Though those are very generic interpretations. Life magic can be anything from restoration to inspiration of others and spiritual cleansing, and even comprehension of the living world and the forces which abound within it. It can also be used to interface with and disrupt anatomy, and even hold some control over the will and mind of others. They are all extremely flexible in their applications in that way.”
“What about things like Psychic powers?”
“Psychic powers?” She asked curiously.
“Moving things with your mind. Telekinesis, that sort of thing.”
“Hmm…” Tarixi responded thoughtfully. “That sounds more along the lines of Force magic, which deals with intent and force of will to affect the space around oneself. It is not a school so much as a capacity. It was a power known to some, but hardly prevalent in the world by any means. A rare gift, and one to be treasured.” She waved a hand airily as they continued to descend. “Let it suffice to say that it exists, if you wish to pursue it… though it may be quite difficult without a proper teacher.”
Aurelian nodded with understanding, but wasn’t remotely dissuaded. He had really wanted to Professor X some fools if he ever had the chance, and he wasn’t about to turn it down because it might be hard. “You said ten. What are the other two?”
“Light and Shadow.” She answered easily. “Despite the dogmatic beliefs of the Godsworn, they are merely elements of reality as opposed to any kind of Divine source of providence or malice.” Her tone was dismissive and scornful as she said it, mellowing only somewhat when she continued. “Light deals with the manipulation of spectrum energies to create constructs or consolidate its constituent elements into a manipulable form, while Shadow does the same. Despite popular beliefs that likely still abound, neither is inherently stronger or more valuable than the other.”
She shrugged her little shoulders as if to say ‘people will believe what they will’ and continued. “Shadows melt before strong light, and light is smothered by overwhelming shadows. They are just powers.”
“It sounds as if you’re vehemently against religion.” Aurelian observed.
“The Empire revered and respected the Eternals, but we certainly didn’t consider them gods in the same way as the Godsworn worship their own. Eternals are primordial forces of reality, not deities to be supplicated to. We communed for wisdom, guidance, and insight through their immense comprehension of their varied demesnes. To hear the Godsworn tell it, their messianic idol is the one true glory in all of the cosmos.”
“What do they worship, exactly?”
“Solarius.” She scoffed.
“Who?”
“The God of Light.”
“But you said there aren’t any—?”
“I use god in a loose definition. Consider if you will an ant. If you have the power to crush that ant under your heel, are you not akin to a god from its perspective?”
“Cool that you have ants here,” he said first, “but yeah I understand. It’s the whole magic is just science we—Actually nevermind, that doesn’t really apply here.” He waved a hand. “I get it is what I mean. They’re… super high levelled arseholes?”
She laughed. “In a manner of speaking, certainly. That is likely why you were called.”
“What do you mean?” He asked with a sudden twist of anxiety. “I’m not going to be expected to fight a god, right?”
Iron Will is now Level 18!
“No, but the purpose of your core should elucidate your nature.”
“You’re being too vague, Tarixi. Spit it out please. I hate vagaries.”
She laughed again, as if she were enjoying teasing him. “Very well. My apologies.” She turned around while she drifted and faced him, a sly smile on her features. “Your Calamity Core. Have you ever considered why it is named such?”
“I dunno, Isekai melodrama?” He commented with nerves-induced sarcasm.
“Is that the name of a god?” She enquired.
Aurelian snorted. “It—No. Continue. Sorry. Just… Context. Nevermind. Go ahead.”
She regarded him levelly for a moment and then, blessedly, decided to accept his explanation. “There were once many gods, Aurelian. Dozens in truth. Nobody who lived in my time knew what triggered the godswar that ended them, but all we know is that the Realm was engulfed in it. Cities burned, mountains rose and fell, seas were formed where land had prevailed… Deities waged war on one another directly and through their mortal supplicants, and by the end of it all only one faction remained: Solarius and the Nine.” Her voice turned notably spiteful as she explained, and then she sighed as if to rid herself of the ire before continuing.
“What you must understand is that the System has rules. Not the way that you or I might see the concept, but the System is not a creature of dictation. It is a creation of choice and consequence.” She peered at him while they descended, expression rueful. “There is a point, I promise.”
“I’m actually really interested to hear this,” he said with a smile. “Continue, please.”
Tarixi nodded with a look of pleasant surprise and did as he requested. “There were many scholarly works relating to how it functioned, but the most agreed upon theory is that the System runs on mana. Or perhaps it is mana. That truth is one that has escaped us, but we do know that the most potent form of magical energy is, in fact, Soulforce.”
“Oh. Oooh.” Aurelian said as pieces started to click. “And we cultivate it, and mana.”
“That’s right.” Tarixi said approvingly. “All creatures bound to the System intake mana, but so too do we create it in our bodies, and with our Soulforce. Thus it is in the System’s interest and is its most logical prerogative to ensure the Realms’ continued existence.”
“I’m guessing this is why the gods aren’t roaming around punting mortals anymore.”
“Right again.” She said with a ghostly grin. “When the godswar ended, the System placed limitations on the gods as a result of their reckless and wanton obliteration of massive swathes of both the Realms and their denizens. They were restricted to the Highest, and there they were forced to remain. They could, however, create symbiotic connections of a kind between denizens of other Realms and themselves. A watered down imitation of the connection between the System and living creatures, including them, in fact.”
“They give power, and gain worship in return. I’m guessing that Faith is some sort of energy for them?”
“Yes.” Tarixi said with another nod. “The gods rely on Faith for strength. It’s cultivated into Influence, which is what they expend to affect or change things in whatever capacity they can. It also directly affects how powerful they are individually.”
“Megalomaniacal immortals.” He muttered. “That sounds like a horror story.”
“Indeed, and despite the godswar there were many people that still maintained Faith in the Ten. For a time they held quite a bit of power over the Prime Material, right up until the first Calamity.”
When she looked back to check if he was listening, he simply gestured for her to continue.
“Mmm. History tells us it was a woman of preternatural power, force, and the ability to surpass all limits. She was not born here, though. She was Called.”
Aurelian blinked and let out a slow sigh. “She was Nephilim?”
“That is the understood lore, yes.” Tarixi confirmed.
“Who called her?”
“That is where it becomes interesting. You remember I said that Shadow is reviled by the Godsworn?”
“Yes…?”
“Shadow was the Dominion of Selenia. Solarius’ twin sister.”
“So why is it—?”
“You asked who called the Calamity.”
“Wait, a goddess did?!”
“Yes. Purportedly Selenia grew… weary of her brother and their kin, and regretted the damage they had done to the Realms. She passed on the ritual of the Calling to her followers, and bade them to act in her stead. They very evidently complied.”
“So Solarius, what… killed her?”
“Worse. He drained her of power and used the Influence of the other Eight to imprison her in the Prime Material where she could languish, watching over those she betrayed her own kind to protect.”
“Where is—?”
“She is the Moon.” Tarixi said gravely.
“Holy shit.” Aurelian said with a low whistle. “And the Calamity?”
“Exposed the gods for the selfish, conceited, self-aggrandising parasites they were.”
“And they just let her?” He asked suspiciously.
“Not at all. Her Calamity Core allowed her to not only free worshippers from their thrall, but remove divine influence from a Soulforce. She could sunder their connection to even their most powerful servants, after she defeated them and weakened them enough.” Tarixi’s smirk was in her tone as she spoke. “Deities cannot intervene in the prime material directly as I said. They can only direct their servants or, in very rare cases, Avatars empowered with a shard of their essence through momentous expenditures of Influence. It was not so much that they allowed her to do it, as much as they simply had no means of halting her directly.”
“So I could—?”
“Quite so.”
“And I was summoned because you needed that?”
Tarixi nodded again. “A Calamity Core is the only way we can stop the madness the Godsworn unleashed in their destruction of the Empire, and its teachings of the true histories. Once Justinian was taken by the Solari and their forces…” She sighed quietly. “Well, that marked the beginning of the end for our struggle.”
“Justinian?” Aurelian queried.
“Justinian of House Tollarius.” She clarified sadly. “Our last Imperator’s brother.”
“That’s downright Shakespearian…” He murmured.
“Pardon?” Tarixi asked curiously.
“Nevermind, it’s a cultural reference from my home. So Justinian joined the Godsworn, screwed over the Elysean Empire, and brought back religion to the apostate masses?”
“Through force where necessary, but yes. The Gods had been reviled and rightfully shunned for thousands of years thanks to the efforts of the Elysean Empire, and the teachings passed down by the Calamity. By converting Justinian, the Solari turned all of his considerable influence to their purpose — and those that did not buy into the dogma…” She shook her head. “Well, there were easy solutions for naysayers.”
“That is seriously fucked up.” Aurelian said quietly.
“Indeed.” Tarixi replied. “Though initially Faith starved, the gods only gained more power and more momentum as they gained followers. Once their tide of revelation hit critical mass, there was little we could do.” She sighed. “And so here we are. Elysea fallen, the gods in ascendancy once more — led by Solarius, most likely, and his grand cult — and no voice of reason nor power left in the Prime Material to oppose them.”
“Except me.” He said as his Iron Will fought to repel his anxiety.
“That’s right,” Tarixi agreed cheerfully. “And I’m going to make sure you’re ready to kick their thrice-accursed godsloving teeth in.”
“Well,” he said after a moment of amusement at her words, “that’s reassuring.”
“I’m glad.” She said heartily. “After all, it is only appropriate that we come full circle.”
“Because of the Calamity?”
“Of course.” Tarixi said with a glance back at him. “She wasn’t just the liberator, Aurelian, she was the founder of the Empire. That’s why Elyseans are — were — such a powerful race. Every single one had Nephilim blood.”
“All from one woman?” He asked incredulously.
“No, of course not.” Tarixi laughed. “Over the centuries her bloodline mingled throughout all of the Empire, and other Nephilim were Called to address times of crisis or lesser re-emergences of the god cults. Each one took a different guise on arrival; everything from Elves to Humans to Orcs to Dwarves to Gnomes… It goes on.” She waved a hand airily. “Elyseans, as a result, can appear as almost any of the races really. They are usually more inclined toward appearing of Elf and Human descent, based on the popularity of those races among the Nephilim… but that is—was, rather—the most common affectation.”
“Which one am I? The System didn’t really give me a choice. It was just ‘Elysean’.”
“Truly? That is… strange. I suppose it makes sense, given what the Calling supposedly had been altered to do, but… Mmm. Yes. Strange.” She hummed thoughtfully for a moment, before abruptly shrugging. “It hardly matters. You are the Reclaimer, Aurelian. Elysean is what you decide it is, now.” She turned back to grin at him conspiratorially. “But if you must know, you look not unlike a more powerfully built half-elf.”
“Half-Elf? Half elf and half what?”
“Impossible to place, truthfully. Your skin tone is fair like high elves and you have their ears, but with muscles like a half-orc, the strong jaw and proportional features of a human, and the symmetrical perfection of a System-forged Nephilim body. It was never too talented with asymmetry as a concept. I couldn’t place you if I tried, without knowing what I know.”
Aurelian fell silent as he mulled over that, and the deluge of history and insight he’d received. The way she spoke of the System, the gods, the correlation between the Realms… It was almost enough to make his head spin. He certainly felt overwhelmed. Inundated with information, too. He was thankful in that moment for his Codex, which he noted with a quick check had been faithfully recording everything. Tarixi’s insights had given him a sense of relief in that he knew, at least, that Elyseans weren’t evil. It would have been a bit disappointing to be summoned by the ‘baddies’, as it were.
But that also didn’t implicitly make the Godsworn evil. They might have had varied beliefs and incredibly horrible ways of accomplishing their goals, but until he saw what sort of world they’d ended up building with it, it was difficult for him to lay the crimes of thousands of years prior at the feet of the current generation. There was enough of that on Earth, he didn’t need to bring it to the Realms.
If they were tyrannical megalomaniacs, but… he glanced down at his hands.
Would he have the resolve to fight? To kill? It was a question he couldn’t answer.
“Ah.” Tarixi said abruptly, cutting off his reverie and snapping him back to the present as the end of the stairwell finally arrived and they emerged onto a relatively uniformly flat plane of granite. “We are here.”
Exploration is now Level 5!
Exploration is now Level 6!
“Where is here?” Aurelian asked warily.
“The greatest secret of the Elysean Empire’s final days, Reclaimer. Your charge.”
As if on cue — though more likely from his forward movement — the entire cavern abruptly surged with light; illuminated in every corner of a vast, dwarfing expanse that could have easily fit an Earth-sized town within its limits. As light was shed, his eyes travelled over the vast and open area. It had to have been almost a kilometre high or more, and wide enough to fit a dozen American football fields comfortably in a square grid. The sheer scale of it defied reason, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen a greater demonstration of the wonders of magic.
“This is unreal.” He said in an awed voice. “But why is it so empty?”
“Ah, the final security layer must still be in place. Please reach out with your will and try to interact with the system.”
“Uh, alright.” Aurelian said with a glance at Tarixi before doing as she bid, and extending his awareness.
Alpha-One User identified in Facility 01-DSU-Alpha.
Local Security Measures designation ‘Leviathan Mirage’ in effect.
Would you like to disable ‘Leviathan Mirage’, Reclaimer?
Y / N
“Uh it’s asking me if I want to disable the le—?”
“Leviathan Mirage?” Tarixi interrupted impatiently. “Yes, do so.”
Aurelian blinked. “That doesn’t really sound safe…”
“Aurelian,” she said in exasperation as she turned, “I have waited thousands of years for you to arrive. I am not going to encourage you to do anything that hurts you.”
“I…” He hesitated still, but a voice in his mind played to his reason: Trust had to be extended before it could be earned. “Well, alright.” He said with a deep breath, and prayer he was doing the right thing. A flick of a thought later and he pressed the ‘YES’ option with his mind.
Input accepted.
Alpha-One User override registered.
‘Leviathan Mirage’ shutting down.
Welcome to the Dragon’s Den, Reclaimer.
“The Dragon’s D—?” Aurelian’s mouth snapped shut. His entire body froze.
Where before there had been nothing but empty space, now there was a mountainous mass of onyx and platinum scales, with a head the size of a bus and eyes the size of a dinner table. Horns jutted out from atop its head, and two leathery wings were folded over a body with four limbs whose clawed ends were large enough to crush ten people in a single blow. It had a serrated tail coiled around its body, its thickest portion as wide as a 747 airliner and likely heavier too. He could scarcely believe his eyes. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. A creature of myth out of his wildest dreams had appeared before him.
A gigantic fucking Dragon.
And it was staring directly at him.