The entirety of Dragon’s Nest was silent as I picked myself off the slanting floor. The crash had left the building lifeless and tilted at an extreme angle. The pulsing purple light that I had grown accustomed to for so long was now dark.
My thoughts were full of worry for my mom and dad after the crash but right now I did not have time to check on them.Luckly, the infirmary was deep within the bowels of the building so they should have been safe from the explosion. I grit my teeth as I looked out the busted door. There, three Demons stood alongside nearly fifty Alphas.
“No more hiding in your little castle, Aurielle,” one of the Demons taunted with a twisted grin.
I looked back at the others around me and saw the grim expressions on their faces. Everyone understood the danger we were in. There were just too many Alphas for us to fight. Without any escape, the Demons would pick us off one by one.
“Sorry everyone, i messed up big this time." I said grimly. "Charly, get Mom and Dad. We might have to abandon Dragon’s Nest.”
Charly nodded but before he could move, another voice interrupted him. “That will not be necessary.”
I turned to look at the source of the strangely layered voice that sounded as if two people were speaking at the same time. Donte was no longer unconscious as he slowly stood up. His normally blue eyes now radiated a bright purple.
“Mare? Are you ok?” I asked as I realized that Donte was once again not in control of his own body.
“I just took an explosion to the face. What do you think?” Mare replied with a growl, “The walls of Dragon’s Nest are not made of stone, they are my flesh and bones. I feel every scratch, no matter how minor, and you…” Mare paused as she pointed at me with an angry glare. For a moment it looked as if she was struggling to say something but could not find the words. Unable to express herself, Mare, possessing Donte’s body walked over to me and flicked me on the forehead. “You are a terrible storyteller,” She finally mumbled.
“What did I do?” I complained as I rubbed the sore spot on my forehead.
Mare looked at me silently for a long moment before shaking her head. “I will explain later. Right now, I need to keep you miserable idiots alive. Unless of course, you want to fight the Demons and all their little pets?”
“You have a way to deal with them?” I asked skeptically as I looked around at the lifeless building.
“No, but if there is one thing I have always been good at, it is running away,” Mare replied as she turned towards Vissna. “Oversized lizard, give me some of your blood.”
Vissna narrowed her eyes as she began to radiate an intense murderous aura. “Why?”
“Because it is wasted staining my nice floors. Why do you think? With my core recovering, I need it to activate Dragon’s Nest,” Mare said while completely ignoring Vissna’s murderous gaze.
My eyes widened at Mare’s comment as I noticed a golden red liquid dripping Down Vissna’s leg. “You were injured?” I asked incredulously.
“A small scratch,” Vissna said as she looked away, almost as if embarrassed, “That big beast caught me by surprise. It will not happen again. I swear it by…”
“Yes, yes, dragon’s pride, blah, blah,” Mare said impatiently, “Either give me the blood now or go fight the Demons by yourself. I can always harvest it from your corpse later if you prefer.”
Vissna scowled but after a moment she relented. Her domain encircled the golden liquid and lifted it into the air. “Take it,” she growled.
Donte’s body radiated purple energy as Mare reached out to the small orb with a smile on her face. Before anyone even knew what was happening, the blood seeped through Donte’s skin and into his body.
Mare gave a sigh of satisfaction after the blood disappeared. “That really is a euphoric feeling. It is a shame this boy is too weak for me to really enjoy it. I will have to move fast before I accidentally kill the halfwit.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked curiously.
Mare smiled as she strode confidently towards the busted remains of the door leading outside. “I named my home Dragon’s Nest. Did you ever stop to wonder why?”
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Mare stepped past the ruins of the door where the Demons waited with Predatory gazes. “It is actually the boy that stepped out first?” One of the Demons remarked in surprise, “Is he supposed to be some sort of offering? I expected more bravery from Aurielle.”
“Let me be the one to kill him,” another of the Demons I recognized as Andras, the wind Demon said.
Mare shook her head. “Your time to fight the halfwit will come but not today.” Mare then turned away from the Demons, completely ignoring them as she placed her hand on the outer wall of the building.
Andras’s face turned red as he saw the complete disinterest in Mare’s gaze. “You think you can just ignore me!” he shouted. The wind began to pick up as a cyclone appeared around the Demon. With more than a dozen Alphas following on either side, he rushed down towards Donte. The pure murderous hatred in his gaze was enough to send chills down my spine.
Mare did not even turn to look at the charging Demon as she closed her eyes. Donte’s body began to exude a monstrous amount of energy. For a moment, it almost felt as if I was standing in front of a second Vissna in her full draconic form. It was more power than Donte had ever exhibited before and his body was clearly not prepared for it. Blood started dripping from his nose, ears, and eyes. However, even that was completely overshadowed by what I felt next.
The energy radiating from Donte’s body traveled through the wall and began to gather at a single point above the door. As the energy pooled in one spot, an image began to appear. It was an image I had seen before when Mare had threatened Vissna. It was the same simple figure of a dragon with wings spread wide while seated in a nest. Unlike the first time I had seen it, however, this time the image felt real. It was as if there was a tangible breathing dragon sitting above the door, looking down at everything in contempt. The pressure it radiated was pure regal splendor. It was the law. Its will was absolute.
Even Sebastion’s Domain could not hold a candle to the pressure I felt radiating from this image. It was as if the entire realm was suddenly weighing down on my shoulders. Even though I used my own domain to push back against the pressure, my resistance was nothing more than an ant trying to move the stars in the sky. I was unable to do anything as the pressure forced me to my knees, forced me to kneel.
This was a presence comparable to the Archdemon! I gasped in amazement. Even at my peak, I would barely be able to stand in front of the being that created this.
“This is the king’s presence!” I heard Vissna say in a trembling whisper. She too knelt on the ground but unlike me, she was not resisting the pressure that radiated from the image. She almost seemed as if she was enjoying the feeling of the world on her shoulders.
Even the Demons outside were unable to resist the pressure that radiated from this simple image. Their domains shook and collapsed as they each fell to the ground helplessly.
The image felt as if it was becoming more real with each passing second. It even seemed to turn and look at Donte. The contempt in its gaze that looked down at the world disappeared as it stared wordlessly. It almost seemed… sorrowful.
Mare grit her teeth in response as she stopped pouring energy into the image. She turned towards the Demons kneeling helplessly on the ground and shook her head. “You should count yourself lucky I do not have enough power to fully activate the defenses of this place or all of you would die here and now. At the very least, though, I can leave you with a nice farewell gift.”
Mare slapped the wall and pointed at the Demons. The image of the dragon turned its gaze towards the would-be attackers. The sorrow in the gaze was gone and replaced by righteous fury. The Demons and Demonkin all started howling in pain as they clutched their heads. Mare smiled at their distress but was interrupted when she started coughing uncontrollably. When she moved her hand away from her mouth, it was covered in thick globs of blood.
“Looks like the halfwit is reaching his limit,” Mare muttered in annoyance. She slapped the wall again and turned to look at the image. “Alright, Matchsticks, get us out of here.”
The image of the dragon stopped tormenting the Demons and turned its attention back to Mare. I felt the entire building shake as it began to lift up off the ground. The walls were still dark and lifeless. It took me a moment to realize that it was the image of the dragon that was moving the entire island, just as I would fly with my domain.
Still unable to stand, all I could do was watch in open amazement as the air around the island began to shimmer and crack like glass. The sound of earth-shattering thunder echoed through the air and suddenly, the view outside suddenly changed.
We were no longer surrounded by the forest of ice my dad had created. The Demons no longer stood at the edge of the island and the ever-present blood mist was nowhere to be seen. Instead, we found ourselves in an expanse of rolling green hills dotted with trees.
“Did the island just… teleport?” I asked breathlessly.
Nobody replied to my question as they all looked around in amazement. However, our shock was short-lived as intense nausea suddenly overwhelmed my senses. I could not stop myself from puking up my breakfast as my stomach did backflips and cramped in protest. Based on the sounds, everyone else was suffering just the same as me.
“Yep, that is the feeling of traveling through shattered space,” I mumbled weakly as my body spasmed in complaint at the sudden intense feelings of vertigo and nausea.
The only person not affected by the sudden debilitating sickness was Mare, still in Donte’s body. She and the image of the dragon stared at each other in silence until a deep rumbling voice echoed out.
“Even after all this time, you still have not given up, little shadow?”
Mare’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at the image of the dragon. “I do not want to hear another lecture from you, Matchsticks. Finish your reincarnation and stop me if it is that important to you. Otherwise, go back to sleep and focus on healing.”
The image of the dragon remained silent as it gazed at Mare with eyes full of deep regret. Eventually, the image began to fade and I felt the pressure radiating from it disappear. A few moments later, it was nothing more than a normal carving, barely visible above the door.