Chapter 16: Bael'tharax_Reclaimer: Nephilim [Portal Fantasy]

Aurelian huffed out a breath when he completed his three hundredth burpee, and promptly threw his hands behind his head to catch his breath. His lungs heaved for oxygen while he tapped into his breath control, and absently read over his gains. The second sixteen hour period following his lapse in consciousness had been no less brutal, and Tarixi had pushed him to train his endurance even while his health had been regenerating. It turned out that a stasis-locked dragon made for an excellent target to sprint laps around, and Aurelian had done them until he could barely walk.

And then, in keeping with Tarixi’s standard practise, had done them again.

His character sheet populated as he ruminated on his sadistic trainer’s smug expression, and he read over his improvements.

Name: Aurelian Lucis Imperius

Temper: Untempered (Purified Novitiate)

Core: Calamity Core (Ignition Stage)

Level: 18 | Race: Elysean (L) | Origin: Nephilim (L) | Gender: Male | Zodiac: Dragon (L)

Health: 570 | Mana: 186 | Stamina: 150

STR: 59 | AGI: 48 | DEX: 45 | VIT: 57 | END: 31 | INT: 40 | PER: 23 | WIL: 66 | CHA: 24

Spirit Skills: Mana Control (R) 20 | Firebolt (UC) 19 | Shockbolt (UC) 14

Traits: Fast Learner (E)

Titles: Elysean Reclaimer (U) | Survivor (R)

Languages: Draconic

62% to Level 19

You have 18 Skill Points Available!

You have 3 Skill Evolution Points Available!

He had shown improvement across the board, especially where his skills were concerned, and had even managed to extort another point in vitality from his consistent and brutal form of engagement against the different creatures Tarixi had simulated. His Brawling skill, one he learned from the training itself, had also increased exponentially and the Goblin had been forced to start bringing out near-Specialist tier enemies just to help him force through skill improvements and incrementally increase his attributes.

He still found the lack of actual experience from killing Simulacrums mildly infuriating, but the reality of what the device offered in terms of raising his skills had been enough of a boon that he’d found no serious reason to complain outside of the occasional gripe. The increase to his endurance remained the most prodigious gain, likely thanks to how viciously he’d been pushing himself to grow and how creative Tarixi’s tactics had forced him to become.

The ever-varied and more convoluted forms of enemies had even pushed his Tactician skill to the cusp of Novitiate tier, which Tarixi had stated was quite impressive given the rarity category of the ability. It seemed that, unlike abilities like Mana Control where combat was less essential and more additive; Tactician truly needed almost life-threatening or perhaps truly life-threatening engagements to increase with any reliability. She had been uncertain, by her own admission, due in large part to never having needed to level the skill herself.

Plus the negatives that came with the Skill Limit Penalty had applied to her.

He had asked her about the effects of the penalty, and she had summed it up for him concisely.

> “Each person is permitted fifteen common skills, ten uncommon skills, five rare skills, three epic skills, and one legendary skill at or above Novitiate tier per their mind, body, and spirit categories. Any skills levelled to or beyond Novitiate tier after this limit is reached will incur a rapidly increasing experience penalty, up to the point where their progress on any skill becomes essentially deadlocked. The limit on each category doubles at Expert tier, and again at Titan… but few if any people reach the latter regardless.”

> “That’s… rough.” He’d responded in surprise. “So what do people do if they go over the limit without wanting to?”

> Her reply had been given with a look of grim severity, and he’d immediately had the feeling she was speaking from personal experience when she answered. “They select a skill, existing or new, and disable it. It is… not a pleasant experience, and can have complications if done improperly… but it is largely irrelevant to the person after the fact, as long as they avoid trying to use the specific Skill again.”

> “What happens if they try to use it afterward?” He’d asked with wary interest.

> “Pain.” Tarixi had replied flatly. “A large amount of pain. The System does not like that sort of violation of its voluntarily imposed locks.”

> “Can a disabled skill be re-enabled?” He’d ask more out of concern for if the same occurred with him.

> “It can,” she’d stated in a reserved tone, “but not without great cost.”

> He had taken that seriously.

His eyes glanced up at the timer he’d added beneath his clock in his HUD, that showed a permanent countdown — adjusted and maintained by the System — for when the undead were expected to breach the defences of the hidden chamber. It was sitting at eighty-one hours and thirty-three minutes, but Aurelian wasn’t inclined to trust it implicitly. It could drop at any moment, and knowing his luck and the consistent theme of his time up to that point in the Realms, it very likely would.

“Are you done lollygagging?”

Tarixi’s voice cleanly shattered his moment of quiet introspection, and Aurelian turned to give her a chagrined smile in response after checking his stamina was in fact full. “Yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking about how lucky I am to not have to worry about the Skill Limit Penalty.”

Tarixi snorted in derision and floated toward him in that same, air-walking manner she preferred. “That is an understatement, but at least you acknowledge the ridiculousness of your existence. Many would kill to have your advantages — many already have, in fact. In this age or previous ones, greed has ever been a constant.”

“Where I’m from too,” he confirmed with a nod. “People have nearly destroyed my—my former home over personal greed.” He said with a quick recovery. He’d almost said ‘my home’ instead of former home. Despite resolving himself to his new life in the Realms and loving the way he could improve himself, he’d have been lying if he said he’d moved on just like that. Thoughts of his family still plagued him, and more than that he—grrrghl.

“What in the gods’ name was that?” Tarixi demanded.

Aurelian looked around in confusion himself, until he realised belatedly that the noise had come from him. Specifically from his stomach.

He glanced at his HUD and turned his attention to his status conditions to search for an answer. When he found the answer, and quickly at that, he almost laughed if not for the fact he had no solution as to how to solve it.

Condition: Starvation (Mild)

-15% Health Regeneration for Duration

-15% Stamina Regeneration for Duration

“It looks like being a person finally caught up to me.” Aurelian said wryly. “My HUD says I’m starving.”

Tarixi’s sigh was both audible and heavy when it came, and the Echo rubbed her spectral face with her hands. “Of course this would happen now of all times. I take it you have used at least one health potion since arriving here?”

“Yeah. So?” Aurelian replied with a questioning look.

“It is why it took so long to appear, most likely. Your recent intensive training probably accelerated the issue too. Health potions have some moderate ability to ward off hunger and supply the body with the natural nutrients and proteins it needs to function. It’s part of their own unique brand of effective restoration, but you can hardly survive on potions — especially not when you have the fight of your life coming up…”

“So what do we do?” Aurelian asked as the goblin trailed off, and watched as she furrowed her brows in thought and stared at the gargantuan dragon beside them in silence.

“Something unpleasant.” She muttered. “But necessary.”

“Why do I feel like I will hate this?” He asked warily.

“Because I will hate this.” Tarixi responded grimly. “But it must be done. It’s time, Aurelian. You need to release Bael’tharax from stasis.”

Aurelian stared at her long and hard for a solid twenty seconds before he could muster up the ability to speak. “I’m sorry, you want me to fucking what now?”

“Awaken the Dragon King.” She repeated with a hint of impatience.

“And do what? Ask him for a fillet? Sneak a piece off the tail? Yeah I’m sure that would go over well.” He began heatedly. “Excuse me mister ancient powerful fucking leviathan sir, would you mind terribly if I cooked myself a bit of dragon steak? Your ribcage just looks fucking delightful!”

Tarixi watched him impassively as he went through his sarcastic diatribe, and waited until he was finished and still glaring at her before speaking. “Are you done?”

“Am I d—? I am not eating the fucking Dragon King!”

“Fool boy.” Tarixi said with a dismissive sniff. “Nobody is asking you to. If you are quite finished being hysterical, however, I would be glad to explain.”

Aurelian glared at her for another long moment as he processed her words, and almost shot out another venomous bit of sarcasm — it was very tempting — before biting his tongue and nodding his head. It was not guilt that stopped him that time, of course. It was the realisation that his overreaction had been largely based in fear, even with Iron Will active. Bael’tharax still terrified some small, primal part of him that only saw a very, very, very large reptile with teeth longer than he was tall.

“Thank you.” She said primly before launching into her explanation. “Bael’tharax is extremely powerful, more than most creatures that will ever exist; and part of his ability is that he can transmute energy. In simpler terms this is called alchemy, though the term also correlates to the interaction between specific items, precipitants, catalysts, emulsifiers and—” She cleared her throat and paused for a moment. After a visible mental reset, the Echo continued. “Suffice it to say that Bael’tharax could in theory provide you with a means to feed yourself while also helping you grow stronger, if he does what I suspect he might when he learns of our situation. The problem…” She sighed. “The problem is that the Dragon King is a very… Shall we say proud creature and the pernicious effect of learning that an Untempered — even a Nephilim! — is his only hope for not becoming one of the undead will be…”

Tarixi sighed as she looked at the frozen form of the colossal creature. “He will be embarrassed, and wish to show his power. Since the artefact used by Justinian makes that largely implausible, he will instead attempt to accelerate your growth himself. You should be ready for that. Bael’tharax is stubborn, insistent, and disinclined toward being ignored. He is—”

“A grandpa.” Aurelian realised in stunned disbelief. “The dragon king is a grumpy old man.”

“I would not say—”

“Ha! That’s hilarious. Here I am terrified of Godzilla’s meaner brother over there, and he’s basically just a pissed off grandpa that wishes he could put the beatdown on the hooligans trashing his lawn. Holy shit, that’s amazing.” Even as he spoke Aurelian felt the fear for Bael’tharax eroding. It was by no means a sudden and miraculous balm on his soul-deep terror for the creature’s sheer magnitude or power, but something about imagining a gigantic, sulky dragon wanting to kick those darn no-good’un undead hooligans out of his yard released a knot of tension within Aurelian.

“And you’re sure this is the only way? It seems a bit wasteful to accelerate his demise for some food.”

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“Unless you wish to brave the Palace looking for food stores that are very likely corroded or inaccessible, while suffering what I assume is a debuff to your most important resources?”

Aurelian had no answer for that, and cleared his throat.

“Alright. Cool. Let’s do this. I just select end stasis?”

Tarixi stared at him for a long moment in open bewilderment, her expression shifting between perplexed and bemused before settling on what seemed to be a mix between baffled and accepting. “Yes,” she said once she’d recovered enough to speak, “you simply open the System interface, find where it asks if you’d like to remove the Stasis Field, and confirm that you wish to.”

“Alright.” Aurelian said and projected his will out to the System.

Alpha-One User Identity confirmed.

Welcome, Reclaimer Aurelian!

Awaiting input.

Instead of using his mind, Aurelian spoke out aloud for Tarixi’s benefit. He suspected this was something of a momentous occasion for the ghost he had come to view as a friend and mentor, and he didn’t want to rob it from her. “Show me the Command List.”

Input acknowledged.

Populating Command List . . .

Command List Populated!

AVAILABLE COMMANDS:

Disable All Security Measures

Disable Specified Security Measures

Disable Stasis Field

Assess All Security Measures

Assess Specified Security Measures

Unlock Armoury Access

Deactivate Simulacrum Generator

Activate Animus Engine

Overload Animus Engine

Aurelian read over the options once with fleeting curiosity for any changes, spotted the ‘Deactivate Simulacrum Generator’ change, and then focused on what he wanted. It was a single change and one he expected, but still somewhat interesting to see done. The entire concept of the System still impressed and awed him when he really stopped to think about it. It would have made the ‘we live in a simulation’ theorists on Earth go absolutely mental.

“Disable Stasis Field.” He said clearly.

Input acknowledged.

WARNING: Disabling Stasis Field will result in rapid deterioration of subject ‘Leviathan’, with a 100% certainty of eventual cessation of life.

WARNING: Mana Reserves not sufficient for reactivation and recommencement of Stasis Field. Disabling Stasis Field cannot be undone.

Do you wish to proceed?

Y / N

Aurelian relayed what the System was telling him to Tarixi. The goblin listened in silence and closed her eyes, bowing her head and taking a deep and steadying breath as she processed what he had told her. He belatedly realised that, despite the humour she had used when describing Bael’tharax, the dragon had likely been a massive part of her life and the lives of everyone in her time period. It must have been like seeing an inviolable and eternal pillar of her reality consigned to destruction, and by her recommendation.

Aurelian felt a pang of sympathy and guilt roll through him at how callous he’d been about the whole situation, and resolved to once again try and do better. It was mildly frustrating to be constantly having to remind himself, though. After all he’d been raised to be thoughtful and empathetic, but something about coming to the Realms and things he’d gone through in the short fifty odd hours he’d been within the Prime Material…

It had changed him in ways he wasn’t entirely sure he liked.

“Alright, Aurelian.” Tarixi said while raising her head, and squaring her shoulders in determination. “Let us proceed.” Her voice was firm and unwavering, and her ghostly gaze held resolve within it.

He offered her no quip in response and instead turned his attention to the question blinking within his gaze. A new weight seemed to surround the choice as he regarded it, but buoyed by the determination he saw in Tarixi’s Echo — in spite of the grief that must have been eating away at her — and with no other readily available option… he selected in the affirmative.

Input acknowledged.

Confirming request lies within requesting user’s authority…

Alpha-One Access confirmed.

Let the Leviathan be unleashed by your will, Reclaimer!

Stasis Field Shutting Down.

Aurelian dismissed his System prompt with a frown at its particular wording, and then nodded to Tarixi to confirm it was done.

He needn’t have bothered.

Even as he was signalling the goblin’s spirit, energy thrummed throughout the cavern and a soundless rumble — as paradoxical as it seemed — vibrated down to his bones. Aurelian raised his eyes toward the top of Bael’tharax’s body as a flare of blue light ignited at the zenith of the dragon king’s central mass, and a colossal blue dome flashed into existence around the creature’s body. Aurelian only barely noticed that the dome actually consisted of millions of tightly packed runic combinations, densely formed into what appeared at a glance to be a solid layer.

Then the entire construct started to dissipate.

It began from the top where the light had first flared. Runes flashed red and erupted into motes of mana that fizzled into nothingness, creating a systematic pattern that looked like red light eating into the beautiful harmony of the blue runes while the shield was decimated from the top down. Aurelian stood transfixed at the sight, and only barely noticed Tarixi moving forward to hover at his side as the stasis field was steadily obliterated by the System’s hand.

When at last the final layer of runes had been cleared, Aurelian waited with baited breath for what would come next. When nothing further happened, he turned to Tarixi to ask if there was something else… and then the cavern shook. For a wild moment Aurelian looked down at his feet and wondered if they were being struck by a sudden earthquake. Then a deep and pervading rumble filled the chamber loud enough to rival the ignition volume of an interplanetary rocket, and Aurelian’s eyes slowly lifted to face Bael’tharax.

The dragon king’s golden eye stared back from much closer than before.

Iron Will is now Level 22!

You have resisted Condition: Terrified (Extreme)!

Aurelian stopped moving. Stopped blinking. Stopped breathing. He only had eyes for the golden light illuminating the cavern floor, sourced by the perilous and ancient golden eye locked on him, its radiating power as ferocious as if someone had pulled down and imprisoned the sun. The cavern shook again, and Aurelian realised belatedly it was the dragon’s breath being pulled in and released. His breath and nothing more.

The rumble came again, and he found himself swallowing reflexively.

“WHOM IS IT THAT HAS AWOKEN ME TO DIE?”

Aurelian wanted very badly to say ‘nobody, this is a mistake and I am leaving right now’ but the words would not form. Either because he knew they were the wrong words, or because he simply didn’t have it in him to be quippy in the face of a creature that still looked like he could absolutely curbstomp Godzilla. Aurelian swallowed again and looked with wide eyes at Tarixi’s ghost.

She gave him a thumbs up and smiled.

Aurelian felt himself go pale.

“THE GHOST IS NOT THE OBJECT OF MY INTEREST, WHELP.”

Aurelian squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face back toward Bael’tharax, his mind telling him that if he couldn’t see the personification of the apocalypse, he certainly couldn’t fear it. Even with Iron Will essentially overclocking itself to keep him from collapsing into a defecating, urinating, gibbering mess of terror; it was difficult to believe his own thought processes. Yet still and in spite of everything, a part of him railed against the idea of being cowed.

He had come into the world fighting, and beaten the odds to survive when they had been thrown against him. He’d become stronger. He’d overcome challenges. He’d survived Tarixi’s sadistic training regime, and he was on the path to kill an honest-to-god necromancer or lich or whatever was controlling the mindless hordes of walking corpses.

Damned if he was going to let a giant goanna scare him.

He would not break. He would not break.

I WILL NOT BREAK.

Iron Will is now Level 23!

Aurelian snapped open his eyes and squared his shoulders at the blazing eye of the dragon king. Then with an inhalation of breath and utter disregard of his better sense, he spoke.

“Listen here you overgrown, ancient, godzilla-looking scaly twat! I am Aurelian Lucis Imperius, Nephilim and Reclaimer of the Elysean Empire, and I am not fucking afraid of you!”

He emphasised the point by jabbing his forefinger toward the eye almost big enough for him to stand in.

Another rumble shook the cavern, this one powerful enough to actually cause several stalactites to crack from where they’d formed in the ceiling over the millennia and crash down into the ground in an echoing shatter of stone. Aurelian forced himself to remain completely calm and still despite the sudden eruption of noise. Perhaps he was about to die. Perhaps this was how it ended, but damned if he hadn’t gone out while spitting in the proverbial eye of—Wait, was the dragon actually…?

The realisation hit Aurelian like a bucket of cold water, and he stared at the slitted golden eye in blatant disbelief. Rage replaced fear, and his paled cheeks coloured with fury as he worked his jaw in silent consternation at his sudden realisation.

The giant scaly bastard was laughing.

“Are you laughing at me?” Aurelian demanded.

“IT HAS BEEN CENTURIES SINCE I HAVE BEEN INSULTED SO THOROUGHLY.” The ancient dragon responded with a bone-shaking rumble as he shifted his weight and lifted his head high. His two colossal front legs moved to rest at the forefront of his body, claws shearing through granite in a mind-boggling imitation of a stretching cat, and Bael’tharax turned to regard Aurelian with a tilt of his bus-sized head. “IT IS MOST AMUSING THAT THE RECLAIMER SHOULD BE THE ONE TO DO IT NOW, AT THE TWILIGHT PRECEDING THE END OF MY LIFE.”

“I…” Aurelian found himself speechless for a moment, and then turned to Tarixi in realisation. “Wait, you can see her?”

“YOU SPEAK OF THE ECHO OF TARIXI FIRESOUL?” The massive beast’s eye moved to regard the spirit slowly, and then rotated back to Aurelian. The single organ was so incredibly huge that Aurelian could actually hear it moving in its socket, like the faint slosh of a wet rag.

Aurelian just nodded.

“OF COURSE I SENSE HER, RECLAIMER. EVEN WERE SHE NOT MOUNTED IN THE SIMULACRUM I WOULD SEE HER AS CLEARLY AS A MORTAL SEES THE SUN DURING SOLUM. SHE BURNS BRIGHT WITH THE POWER OF HER REMNANT SOULFORCE.”

Tarixi took that moment to speak up at last, and Aurelian had the distinct impression she’d been partially overwhelmed, but also partially curious as to how he handled himself. It certainly explained the thumbs up, which he hadn’t even been aware she’d figured out was a gesture of support.

“Hello again, Bael’tharax. Though I am an Echo as you said, the remnant of Tarixi that I am remembers fondly our times conversing. It is a great regret that we could not speak further before ruin descended upon us all, but I am heartened to know I died so that this meeting between you and the Reclaimer might occur.” She smiled brilliantly, and with a touch of bittersweet memory. “It was a worthy death for all that it was senseless, and one I am proud to have had.”

“YOUR SACRIFICE WAS NOT WITHOUT PURPOSE, ECHO. THOUGH YOUR TRUE SELF HAS PASSED BEYOND, KNOW THAT MY GRATITUDE FOR YOUR ACTIONS APPLIES ALSO TO THIS REMNANT YOU NOW ANIMATE.”

Aurelian couldn’t tell if Bael’tharax was being kind or insulting, but judging by the look of joy and gratitude on Tarixi’s face he had to assume there was a nuance or context to the interaction he simply failed to grasp. He looked from the towering head of the dragon — much easier to deal with, now that the colossal thing wasn’t barely two metres away showing off its person-sized teeth — to the diminutive figure of the goblin’s ghost and then cleared his throat.

“I don’t intend to be rude, but we are on something of a timeline here.”

“WHAT IS IT YOU SPEAK OF, RECLAIMER?”

“There are Risen in the palace.” Tarixi answered before Aurelian could think of how to articulate the concern, and he passed her a glance of appreciation. “The nature of their animator is yet unknown, but it only appears — thus far at least — to be the Godsworn that are called back. My suspicion and inclined belief is that the infestation is the work of an Absolum-aligned Ravenor. Potentially a true Vasiri, but I cannot be certain.”

Who the hell is Absolum? Aurelian wondered without interjecting. Sounds like some sort of demon name. She’s been holding out on me.

“I SENSE SURPRISE IN THE RECLAIMER, AND SUSPICION.” Bael’tharax rumbled with what sounded like ponderous interest. His large eye shifted back to Tarixi as he said it, and he addressed her directly with his next statement. “YOU HAVE WITHHELD KNOWLEDGE FROM HIM.”

An accusation, though it was one that was phrased and delivered as incontrovertible fact. Aurelian hesitated at the realisation, and was unsure whether to thank the dragon king or be suspicious of his insight. For a moment he was worried Bael’tharax could read minds, and worked to scrub the angry grandpa dragon with a cane beating away undead hooligans from the image gallery of his mind.

Then he realised that if the dragon could read minds, he’d have already seen the imagined imagery. On top of that, a cursory re-examination revealed that perhaps he had been hasty in his summation regardless. The dragon had specifically stated that he ‘sensed’ surprise, not that he heard it or saw it or tasted it. He sensed it.

That sounded more like very powerful empathy than it did telepathy.

“I admit to obfuscating.” Tarixi said with a clear voice, though to her credit — and as a mild balm for Aurelian’s sudden feeling of betrayal — she sounded decently conflicted and guilty about it. He listened while she continued. “The Intent impressed upon this Echo is to protect and guide the Reclaimer, even if it means protecting him from his own better nature, and his weaknesses.” She turned and looked at Aurelian quietly, and he met her gaze levelly with his own while she spoke. “If he had known what I suspected: that the manner of the raising was consistent with the actions of a Ravenor, or worse a Vasiri… I feared he would have either raced off to do combat with it… or even worse, been too terrified to try.”

The dragon let loose a cavern-shaking sound Aurelian eventually recognised as consideration and thought, and he took the chance to ask the first question that had come to mind: “What the hell is a Vasiri?”

“A FORMERLY NOBLE SPIRIT, OFTEN A HEALER OR EVEN A WARRIOR POSSESSING SUCH MAGIC, TAKEN AND TORTURED TO MADNESS AND RUIN BY THE INSANE ADHERENTS OF THE SO-CALLED GOD OF DEATH, ABSOLUM.” The Dragon snarled ‘quietly’ as he spoke the name of the god — which of course meant another localised earthquake — and his tail lashed the air with a violent crack of force. His wings flexed out like two monolithic canvases capable of blocking out the entire sky from where Aurelian stood, and the sight was a wonder he doubted he would ever forget.

In that moment he caught a glimpse of what Bael’tharax must have seemed like to those that had stood against the Empire when the dragon king had been hale and capable of war. He felt like he understood, in that moment, why armies would have surrendered the minute the dragon king’s shadow had fallen across the battlefield.

It was a suitably sobering reminder of the creature’s immense power.

It was Tarixi that continued the explanation, perhaps after noticing that Bael’tharax had become preoccupied with what she had described as a racial hatred for the so-called gods. “Their natural impulse to renew is twisted into a desire to consume, and they are plagued by a thirst for vitality that cannot be sated.” Tarixi shook her head in what appeared to be sadness and disgust with equal measure. “They are ‘blessed’ with an eternity of undeath, the greatest and most alluring beauty and charm, and may transform ten percent of the attributes of those they consume into additives to their own power.”

“I HAD THOUGHT THE KNIGHTS OF THE ORDO DRACONIS HAD FULLY PUT THE LAST OF THE CREATURES TO REST. EVEN THE SOLARI, FOR ALL THEIR ZEALOTRY AND MADNESS, DESPISED AND HATED THE CREATURES.” Bael’tharax turned his massive head and shifted his gaze between Aurelian and Tarixi in thought and assessment as he spoke, his thunderous voice filling the cavern and setting the massive walls to trembling consistently.

“IT IS A SURPRISE THAT THE SELF-TITLED GOD OF LIGHT WOULD ALLOW HIS MAD SUBORDINATE TO CRAFT SUCH MONSTROSITIES ONCE MORE.”

Aurelian had already lost focus by the time Bael’tharax had started speaking of Solarius and his apparent disdain for… well, probably everything in truth. What he was stuck on was the description of the Vasiri. Undead? Check. Supernaturally attractive? Check. Killing machines? Check. Ridiculously powerful? Check.

He looked up suddenly and spoke, completely uncaring for if he were interrupting. “Hey, uh, Bael’tharax?”

“YES, RECLAIMER?” The dragon thundered in his normal hurricane-like volume.

“These Vasiri. How do they consume vitality? As in… what’s the ideal method?”

“HMM… A PRUDENT QUESTION. THE ANSWER IS REPULSIVE, HOWEVER. THE VASIRI GAIN THEIR FILL THROUGH THE BLOOD OR, IN THE CASE OF THE TRULY DEPRAVED, THE FLESH OF THEIR VICTIMS. THEY CONSUME UNTIL ONE OR BOTH IS GONE ENTIRELY.”

Aurelian sighed in resignation at the answer, and turned his gaze toward Tarixi.

“Listen, I am pissed you held out on me and I intend on having a serious talking to you about mutual trust, but I just realised that what you and grandpa over here—” he gestured to Bael’tharax, and chose to believe the rumble he heard in response was a laugh “—keep referring to as Vasiri? Well, where I come from we call them Vampires.”

Aurelian narrowed his eyes as he continued. “They’re quite prevalent in our folklore and mythology, and I can tell you that most people from my original world—realm—whatever would be very on-board with killing them, or re-killing them, or whatever.” He waved a hand. “But more importantly, there are different variants and some are more powerful, some less. What you have here sounds like the Romanian Strigoi, though I know that means nothing to either of you. However!” He took a moment to draw in a breath and calm his thundering heart — fuelled both by fear and excitement — before continuing. “There is one specific type of these creatures that is universally reviled above all others.”

He looked toward Bael’tharax, noticed the dragon watching him with curious intensity, and then turned back to Tarixi.

“So I have one critical and important question for you, Tarixi.”

The goblin ghost eyed him warily, but gestured for him to proceed.

Aurelian clenched his fists, locked his jaw, and focused his eyes directly on her.

“Do these motherfuckers sparkle?”

Chapter 16: Bael'tharax

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