Aurelian rocked under the weight of the power that suffused him down to his Core, and blinked rapidly against a swirl of prismatic colours, which eventually settled into a small collection of haphazard dots after several moments’ kaleidoscopic blindness. His breath returned to his lungs in the same instant, and he felt himself shudder in sudden revelation at the feeling of weight clinging to his bones, and his Soulforce.
“I feel… heavier.” Aurelian muttered while looking up at Bael’tharax, whose claws had retreated.
He felt the coiling edge of something warm, and looked to see Bahamut threading his spiked tail supportively around his ribcage. Aurelian smiled at the gesture.
“THE WEIGHT OF THE MANTLE IS AS REAL AS IT IS SYMBOLIC, AURELIAN. YOU HOLD WITHIN YOU THE POWER OF UNIFICATION, AND ALL THE RESPONSIBILITY IT ENTAILS. HEAVY IS THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN, RECLAIMER. REMEMBER THAT.”
Aurelian blinked at the Earth-native saying, and then nodded slowly. He supposed it wasn’t all that weird that the words transcended realities, or even Universes. After all it was an apt and grave statement, and one that he would keep with him moving forward. He certainly wasn’t about to forget the tacit weight of the Mantle, draped upon him like a self-same cloak or literal mantle around his shoulders.
“You said it functions as a means to improve the individual,” Aurelian said while he continued to adjust to the new sensation. “Did you mean that they gain physical power, or…?”
I too am curious. Bahamut admitted with a tilt of his large head. This magic sounds immensely powerful. It does not make sense as to how easily Elysea seemingly fell, my Sire.
“THE HARMONY OF THE MANTLE ENDOWS A NATURAL SYNERGY UPON ALL WHO SHELTER UNDER ITS MIGHT. IT DOES NOT DISSEMINATE PHYSICAL OR ARCANE MIGHT, BUT INSTEAD ALLOWS EACH INDIVIDUAL TO FIGHT WITH THE INSTINCTIVE AWARENESS OF THOSE AROUND THEM. IT IS A UNIFICATION OF INTENT, SPATIAL AWARENESS, AND SENSES.”
“Like a gigantic synaptic link. A neuromuscular junction taken to its metaphysical extremes. Wow.” Aurelian shook his head at the realisation, and also at the weight of his intelligence drawing information from his subconscious that he never realised he had. He turned toward Bahamut in thought. “So every person with the Mantle’s protection—”
—gains the same benefits as we do from our Soul Spirit Bond. The dragon finished with an equally impressed tone.
“Albeit they wouldn’t gain the same level of power sharing we will from the truer version of our Soul Bond, I imagine. Still…”
It is remarkable. Bahamut agreed. It turns a disparate mass of panicked mortals into a fighting force as capable and cohesive as its strongest minority, in regards to their coordination, cohesion, and senses. That is—
“—spectacular enough to be shocking.” Aurelian agreed while turning back to Bael’tharax. “Are Dragons included in the Mantle?”
“NOT IN THE MANNER YOU WISH THEM TO BE, AURELIAN. YOU CANNOT SHARE THE SENSES OF DRAGONS AMONG YOUR FUTURE SUBJECTS. WE ARE REMOVED. BEYOND. ABOVE. THE MANTLE IS A THING OF DRAGONS, BUT IT IS NOT A THING FOR DRAGONS. IT IS OUR GIFT TO THE MORTAL RACES, AND WE STAND AS ITS DEFENDERS.”
“Balance, huh?” Aurelian said rhetorically. “The System enforcing balance. A way for it to be strong without being overwhelming.”
Cause and effect. Bahamut agreed.
“THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION FOR HOW ELYSEA FELL, MY HEIR—” Bael’tharax said while turning his large golden eye on Bahamut fully, in answer at last to the dragon’s earlier enquiry “—IS THAT NOTHING IS INFALLIBLE. THE GODSWORN ARE AS INSIDIOUS AS THE GODS ARE CUNNING. THEY UNDERMINED ELYSEA’S UNITY. THEY SOWED DOUBT, AND DISHARMONY, AND PUT THE MORTAL HEARTS OF THE EMPIRE’S CITIZENS UNDER ENOUGH STRAIN TO BEGIN TO QUESTION THE TRUTH OF THEIR LEADERS’ WORDS.”
“But they knew the gods were the enemy. They knew that Solarius and the Eight would try to break apart Elysea.” Aurelian frowned while looking up at Bael’tharax’s immense eye. The dragon’s words didn’t seem right to him, or at least, they didn’t seem fully logical. There was something missing. “How could they be so easily fooled? After literally thousands of years of peace and security and prosperity? It makes no sense. Why would anyone buy into that?”
Time. Bahamut responded instead and with a reasoned tilt of his head again. I would wager it was merely time. Time to forget. Time to grow ignorant. Time to wonder at the stories. No generation existed that understood the gravity of the gods’ malice, nor the weight of their insidious cunning. Only the Dragons remembered. Only the Mantle Bearer truly understood.
“YOUR ASSESSMENT IS ASTUTE, MY HEIR. YES. IT WAS A NAIVE ACCEPTANCE OF ALTERNATE THEORY BRED OF PROTESTATIONS THAT THE ELYSEANS HAD NOT BEEN TOLD THE TRUTH.” The leviathan’s thunderous voice grew grave, and his black pupil slitted in remembered anger and spite for the tragedy that he had very likely witnessed first-hand.
“THE EMPIRE HAD GROWN SOFT, AND SOLARIUS WAS EVER-GIFTED AT APPEARING THE BENEVOLENT GIFT-GIVER. HE SWAYED MANY WITH THE HELP OF THE OTHER EIGHT—EVEN MAD ABSOLUM—WITH SUCH FALSEHOODS. ENOUGH TO MATTER. ENOUGH TO SET THE EMPIRE AFLAME FROM WITHIN.”
“And then they got Justinian, and it reached critical mass.” Aurelian guessed.
Bael’tharax merely dipped his massive head in confirmation.
“Peace begets complacency.” Aurelian muttered. “Just another reason the gods need to be taken out permanently, before this just turns into another cyclical event. I don’t want to liberate a whole goddamn world only for it to fall back into this shit the moment enough time passes. It has to end.”
Bahamut growled in agreement.
“A FINE RESOLVE TO HAVE, AURELIAN, BUT ONE THAT WILL BE CHALLENGED AT EVERY TURN. YOU HAVE YET TO TAKE A LIFE, AND WHILE WE DRAGONS HAVE AN INSTINCTIVE GRASP OF THE ‘NEEDS MUST’ NATURE OF PREDATOR AND PREY, OF HOW TO END A FOE, YOU ARE A KIND SOUL WITH ONLY ONE KILL UNDER YOUR BELT—AND THAT SOLE KILL WAS A MONSTER, ONE WHOSE DEATH WAS A MERCY.”
Aurelian looked up when Bael’tharax’s massive eye narrowed on him speculatively. The ancient leviathan’s gaze was piercing and knowledgeable, and Aurelian knew that in that moment Bael’tharax was seeing far more than just his physical self. The Dragon King was looking beyond, to the very fabric of his Core and Soulforce. “CAN YOU TRULY WEATHER THE COST OF YOUR SPOKEN RESOLVE, AND BEAR ITS WEIGHT WITHOUT BREAKING BENEATH IT?”
Before answering Bael’tharax’s question, Aurelian looked at Bahamut thoughtfully, though no exchange passed between them. He simply took a moment to see, to track the twin horns jutting from the young dragon’s forehead, twined and coiled with platinum veins.
He took his time to admire the blazing platinum runes, five on each side, that he had already supposed represented each major element of magic. He trailed his attention over the razor spines that lined the dragon’s back from neck to tail-tip, and the platinum glint of his teeth, claws, and the tips of those same spines.
At last Aurelian peered at Bahamut’s golden eyes, and in them he found his own resolve looking back.
“I may not be much by myself, when it comes to things like this,” Aurelian said while turning back to Bael’tharax. “And I admit that killing… well, it just seems wrong to me still. That’s an effect of where I come from, and I don’t think I’ll ever lose that sense of wrongness. If I did, I think it’d be worse than any moment of hesitation. But…”
He peered at the immense golden eye of the ancient dragon, and then smiled. “I’m not alone, am I? I won’t crutch on Bahamut, or rather, I won’t foist my burdens or pains onto him. I’d never do that,” he reached up to tap his armoured breastplate. “But I feel his resolve as my own. I feel his courage as my own. I feel his pride as my own. Can I strike when the moment presents itself? If I were alone, I honestly can’t say I’d know for certain.”
Bahamut shifted to lightly tap Aurelian’s breastplate with his tail, and Aurelian grinned down at the spear-like end of the limb before refocusing on Bael’tharax. “But I’m not alone, gramps. You made sure of that. I have a Dragon’s Resolve, a Dragon’s Sight, and the Soul Bond of a Dragon King. When the time comes, I will trust in those things to let my blade strike true, and do so not because it’s what I want, which honestly it very well might be at that point… but because it’s what this world needs.”
Together. Bahamut agreed with a growl of approval.
“HAIL TO YOU, O RECLAIMER,” Bael’tharax said simply.
It was enough, and Aurelian bowed his head in acceptance.
“We’ve talked about me enough, I think,” he said after a few moments’ silence had passed. “If I recall, you had Dragon King business with Bahamut.”
Indeed. His bond said eagerly. I find myself very interested in this, my sire.
“INDEED, AND IT IS GOOD TO ADDRESS IT NOW. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT HAS OCCURRED BETWEEN DRAGON KINGS SINCE THE FIRST OF US WAS ELEVATED TO STAND GUARD AGAINST IMBALANCE. THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU CANNOT KNOW, MY HEIR, UNTIL YOU GROW STRONG ENOUGH TO INHERIT THE MEMORIES.”
Aurelian looked at the ancient dragon with interest, and turned to observe Bahamut while his bond listened intently. The dragon’s eyes were fixed on Bael’tharax’s single massive one, and he appeared completely enthralled by the older dragon’s words. Aurelian couldn’t blame him. Even the simplest phrases, when delivered with Bael’tharax’s weight of power and charisma, were enchanting.
“HOWEVER IN ORDER TO INHERIT THOSE MEMORIES, BEYOND MERELY BEING AS YOU ARE, YOU MUST INHERIT A CONDUIT FOR THEM. FROM ME. AS I DID FROM MY SIRE, AND HE FROM HIS, UNTO THE FIRST OF THE DRAGON KINGS.” The last leviathan opened his jaws and faced his gargantuan head toward them.
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Aurelian swallowed back a moment of existential terror while Dragon’s Resolve flared to life, and he stared down a gullet large enough to consume a small suburban neighbourhood whole. His eyes widened when light emitted from within Bael’tharax’s gigantic maw, and for a wild moment he thought the Dragon King was about to breathe fire.
Then a chime, not unlike bells in the wind, filled the air and an orb of what Aurelian could only describe as condensed mana floated from Bael’tharax’s maw trailing contrails of prismatic soulforce and raw power. It shifted as it moved, shimmering with platinum radiance and prismatic undercurrents while coming slowly forth to ignite the cavern in brilliant light.
The sphere of power lowered when it exited Bael’tharax’s jaws, and the ancient dragon seemed to slump while the ball of power settled down before Bahamut. Aurelian stared at it in awe, and he could feel his flesh tingling at its mere proximity. Without hesitating, he cast Revelate upon it.
Name: Platinum Apex Leviathan Core Shard
Type: Mana Core Shard
Quality: Transcendent
Tier: Apex Leviathan
Requirement: Dragon King
Description: This is a small shard of the Platinum Core of an Apex Leviathan, the largest and most powerful natural life form to exist in the Realms. There are no descriptions that do it justice. It is power incarnate, and possesses a purity of essence to dwarf even the gods.
Special Effects: The Seed of Memory.
“Woah,” Aurelian said in an awed whisper.
“I BEQUEATH TO YOU THE SEED OF MEMORY, MY HEIR. IT IS YOURS BY RIGHT AND BY TRADITION. IN NORMAL TIMES, I WOULD OFFER YOU THE WHOLE OF MY CORE… BUT IT HAS BEEN CORRUPTED. INFECTED. TWISTED,” Bael’tharax’s voice sounded weaker to Aurelian. Diminished. His eyes lifted to the ancient dragon in alarm, and he saw that even the massive creature’s golden eyes had lost much of their lambent intensity. They were… duller. Notably so.
“TO GRANT YOU MY FULL CORE WOULD BE TO TRANSFER MY OWN FATAL AFFLICTION TO YOU, AND SO I MUST BEGGAR YOU IN THE PRESENT TO ENSURE YOUR POWER IN THE FUTURE. IT IS YOURS NOW TO CONSUME, AS LIFE MUST RISE FROM DEATH. WHAT LITTLE POWER I CAN GRANT, I GIVE YOU. WHAT LOVE I HAVE LEFT, I PASS TO YOU. YOU ARE MY SPAWN, MY HEIR, MY SON. I ENTRUST TO YOU THE FUTURE, AND ALL THE GREAT SECRETS OF HISTORY THAT HAS PASSED US BY.”
Aurelian turned to Bahamut, and for the first time over the bond he felt a more complex and breathtaking emotion: grief. It was like a sudden rising tide, as if the young dragon had not known its potency and succumbed to it with a sudden and youthful unpreparedness. The black dragon stepped forward, and looked down upon the shimmering orb of magic, large enough that it was almost half the size of Bahamut himself, and then back up to the watching titan that was Bael’tharax.
What must I do, my sire?
“CONSUME IT. IT IS YOURS. MY TIME IS ENDED. IT IS NOW FOR YOU TO PROTECT THIS WORLD, AND THE DRAGONS YET UNBORN WITHIN IT,” Bael’tharax turned his gaze toward Aurelian, and in that moment the ancient leviathan gave what could almost be justifiably called a draconic smirk with his massive, gargantuan lips and teeth. “YOU HAVE A RIDER THAT IS NOT WHOLLY WORTHLESS, MY HEIR. TOGETHER YOU WILL BOTH ECLIPSE MY OWN ACHIEVEMENTS, AND THOSE OF EVERY DRAGON KING BEFORE. NEVER HAS A PLATINUM DRAGON BEEN BORN TO THE BOND. IT IS A NEW AGE UPON THE REALMS.”
Aurelian swallowed and turned to Bahamut, who was looking between Bael’tharax and the orb as if hesitant. There was a kind of trepidation across the bond, as if the young dragon were fully feeling the inexperience of his youth. It was easy to forget, given Bahamut’s comparative development, that he had literally been born less than three days ago. Dragon’s gestated to a state of maturity, but gestation was not living.
Intellect was not wisdom.
I will do what I must. Bahamut said to both Bael’tharax and Aurelian. With my rider. We will do what we must. We will break the gods on their thrones. We will safeguard the Realms.
“We will Reclaim what has been lost,” Aurelian said with a swell of pride. “We will take back what was stolen, and the Mantle shall once again embrace the people of Terra,” he turned to Bael’tharax and smiled. He felt tears in his eyes when the ancient dragon let out a more laboured, relieved sigh that shook the cavern. “I swear it, Bael’tharax. I’ll stand by him for as long as I’m able. I won’t let you down.”
We will not fail you… father.
Bahamut waited only until Bael’tharax’s eyes blinked in acceptance, and then with a roar he bent and snapped his jaws shut upon the orb. The instant he did, prismatic light exploded from it and wrapped itself around the dragon’s body; ribbons of power surging outward to slam into his runes with tendrils of singular light that represented each one of the Core magics. Red, blue, brown, white, gold, grey, black, green, and teal light that filled the runes with hues of brilliant energy.
Bahamut trembled and Aurelian trembled with him, feeling through their link the sudden heat and energy building within the pony-sized dragon’s body. Aurelian fell forward onto his hands and felt Dragon’s Sanguination and Dragon’s Resolve burn to life, and at the same moment he used Dragon’s Gaze to look upon his bond.
Power raged within Bahamut’s body, and to the double-layered vision of his enhanced eyes he watched as each of the dragon’s spines thrummed with energy, releasing a low whomp… whomp… whomp… of echoing and accelerating whines of power that started with a glow at his bottom-most tail spike and rose along the spines on his back with increasing velocity.
Platinum light, burning with a near-silver white-gold radiance, ignited the jutting spikes upon Bahamut’s body until the young dragon lifted his head and roared. The roar was a thing of magic, of aetheric force, of raw power that seemed to castigate the shadows for daring to attempt to constrain the radiance of the new dragon king’s inheritance. Aurelian watched his bond’s silhouette grow while the power raged. Aurelian watched it surge within the dragon’s body like a tidal force, blazing through every one of the dragon’s incalculably diverse and alien mana channels.
He watched his wings lengthen, his body widen, his limbs and head thicken. He watched the spikes increase in volume and size, and he stared while they split into matched rows racing down his body. The light grew to a blinding intensity, and Aurelian was forced to look away with a shout of absorbed pain while he helped weather for Bahamut the agony that suffused him, much as Bahamut had once done for him.
When finally it seemed as if the light would consume them all, it abruptly started to fade and Aurelian chanced another look at his dragon. What he saw stole the breath from his lungs and sent his jaw plummeting in shock.
Bahamut had grown. No, not merely grown. He had tripled in size.
The dragon that had once been just above Aurelian’s shoulder now towered above him at the height of a medium-scaled elephant. His massive wings flared and his claws dug into the earth, and there was a gravitas to Bahamut’s appearance that he had subtly lacked since his birth. There was a new weight and force to his presence and bearing that Aurelian had only seen once before; in Bael’tharax.
He felt for the bond and noticed that it was subtly different too. There was a greater intensity to it now, with an ageless sense of inevitable power that had not been present earlier. The changes were subtle, despite the physical, but they were noticeable in that they were sufficiently different enough to elicit both a conscious, and subconscious realisation of alteration.
Aurelian picked himself up and stared up at the raised head of his companion, his own eyes wide with awe at the sheer power that seemed to infuse every inch of Bahamut’s accelerated mass. He walked forward and placed his hand upon the dragon’s neck without hesitation, feeling the thick and corded muscle beneath the beautiful black scales, and the permanent heat that seemed to suffuse every inch of the dragon.
When Bahamut lowered his neck to look at him, Aurelian realised with a start that his bond could now use a single eye to face both of his, and that the dragon’s head itself was the size of a rottweiler all on its own.
“Wow,” Aurelian said with a smile. “You got huge, bud.”
I feel… whole in a way I cannot explain, Aurelian. Bahamut sent back with a mix of consideration and perhaps even mild confusion. What my sire gave me was something essential, something that I never would have realised was missing, but which I now cannot imagine living without. It feels as if I have been granted the final stage of my true birth into the Realms.
Aurelian smiled at the dragon’s words, and turned to look at Bael’tharax.
He froze when he did.
The ancient leviathan continued to watch them, but he no longer lifted his head as high. His breathing was nowhere near as strong. Indeed there was a lethargy to the massive dragon that had never been present before. An ageing, as if Bael’tharax had suddenly felt the weight of every one of his thousands of years of life.
“Bael’tharax…?” Aurelian asked hesitantly.
Father…? Bahamut echoed at the same moment.
“IT GLADDENS ME TO SEE THE FUTURE GROW BEFORE MY EYES, LITTLE ONES. I HAVE SOARED THESE SKIES, SWUM THESE DEPTHS, AND TRAVELLED THESE LANDS AND THOSE OF EVERY REALM FOR AGES BEYOND COUNT. I HAVE SEEN THE GREATEST OF MORTAL COURAGE, AND THE WORST OF MORTAL GREED.” The dragon’s words were laboured but steady, and Aurelian felt a pit forming in his stomach and a tightness in his chest. There was a lump in his throat that made it hard to swallow, and he felt a faint whisper of stinging wetness at the corners of his eyes.
“I AM TIRED, YOU SEE. SO VERY TIRED. YET I KNOW I CANNOT REST. NOT YET. NOT UNTIL THE EGGS ARE TRULY SAFE.” His gaze, the golden vibrance now replaced by a steadily increasing fade to a somewhat filmy grey turned to Aurelian fully. “IF YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL IN GAINING A WAYGATE, PLACE ONE END OF IT HERE. THE OTHER YOU MUST ONLY ACTIVATE IF YOU SUCCEED IN SECURING THIS SO-CALLED SANCTUARY AND MAKING IT YOUR NEW SEAT OF POWER. IF YOU DO, YOU MUST COME IMMEDIATELY AND TAKE THE EGGS. PLACE THEM SOMEWHERE SAFE. FIND RIDERS TO BOND WITH THEM AS SOON AS IS SENSIBLE.”
“We will.” Aurelian promised.
We will scour their souls for even the smallest echo of unworthiness. Bahamut added.
“GOOD. THAT IS… GOOD. ONCE YOUR COMPANIONS RETURN, YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE HASTE. BAHAMUT’S NEW STRENGTH WILL CARRY YOU TO YOUR DESTINATION, BUT ENSURE YOU… DO NOT FAIL TO USE EVERY ADVANTAGE.” The old dragon drew in another deep breath before continuing, his eyes unblinking while he took them in. “A RIDER IS AS MUCH DRAGON AS THEY ARE MORTAL, AND DRAGONS ARE NEVER PREY.”
Aurelian smiled despite himself and stepped forward at the same time as Bahamut, moving closer until he could place a hand on the colossal jaw of the resting dragon’s head, and eventually move closer to spread his arms along it and press his head against the furious heat of Bael’tharax’s scales.
On the leviathan’s other side Bahamut pressed against his body, and let loose a low growl of affection. The massive dragon responded with what Aurelian could roughly parse as a low, weak laugh. It shook the entire area.
“I HAVE DEFEATED ARMIES, SEEN EMPERORS RISE, SEEN A NATION FALL, AND FELT THE GREAT STING OF BETRAYAL. I HAVE LOVED MORTALS FOR THEIR COURAGE, AND I HAVE LOATHED THEM FOR THEIR WEAKNESS.” The ancient dragon’s voice faltered, and he breathed out a low and powerful exhalation. “I HAVE SEen and remembered so much… Felt such wonder… Dreamt such dreams as I could never describe…”
Aurelian felt tears running down his cheek while he listened.
“I am proud to know you as the Reclaimer… Alexander Crossford.”
Aurelian’s lip quivered and he buried his face into Bael’tharax’s scales.
“And here, at the end, I can truly say I have done my duty and produced a worthy heir.”
Aurelian felt Bahamut’s grief like a blade against his own heart, and heard the dragon’s own keening cry.
“I don’t want to lose you, gramps.” Aurelian whispered against the dragon’s scales.
“It is… alright… little ones…” Bael’tharax murmured in a bass rumble. “Though I only wish… I could have seen… the sky… one… last… time…”
Bael’tharax’s breath left his massive body, and the Last Leviathan breathed no more.