My grandma’s arrival signaled a major change for both the army and me. With the Demons’ blockade finally broken and plenty of supplies for everyone, soldiers no longer had to ration their food. Something as simple as a full belly lifted the men’s spirits high. In less than a day, more work had been completed in preparation for our march into the blood mist than the past two days combined.
At grandma’s request, I also spent more time among the soldiers. I calmed the people’s fears of becoming one of the undead with a little help from the tricks Marilyn taught me and started helping out in earnest. I was surprised to find that most people were not as apprehensive of me as I walked around the camp as they had been when the war started. Even when I was not practicing with the blue flames or manipulating their impression of me, a few of the soldiers greeted me without any of the distrust of was accustomed to. It was a surprising change that reminded me of the early days of my empire. Back then, I had countless friends and allies that helped me topple the previous tyrannical king. Thinking back to those times, I could not help but wonder, when had their respect for my power turned to fear?
Lost in thought as I reminisced about the past, I accidentally used too much power and all the people around me fell into a mindless daze. I did not even notice what I was doing as the dry grass crunched under my feet. I continued walking aimlessly when the temperature began to plummet. A layer of ice formed across the ground, freezing my feet in place.
“What do you think you are doing?” A threatening voice growled. I saw a flash of blue scales as Vissna swooped down out of the sky. The ground shuddered as she landed with a deafening boom.
I blinked and looked up in confusion. Noticing the blank stares of everyone around me, I quickly canceled the ability. “I was practicing and lost focus,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“Not that!” Vissna said with a snort of frosted air. My skin felt like it was freezing over as ice formed on my hair and eyelashes. Blue and green flames swirled around me to fight back the chill but even pushing my fire as hot as I could, I still felt the chill from Vissna’s breath as she spoke. “I warned you of the risks your phoenix flame can cause and yet, you still used it to revive your entire personal guard!”
“You said I could revive up to a hundred people without it causing permanent damage to the realm. The number of guards that died was only ninety-one,” I replied indignantly.
Vissna flared her nostrils in frustration. “Come with me.”
Before I could react, one of Vissna’s giant talons closed around me. I could feel the power in her grip as I was helplessly yanked into the air. I tried to use my domain to break free but all I accomplished was Vissna tightening her grip further. The air was squeezed from my lungs. I could do nothing but flail my legs wildly as Vissna took flight with me in hand.
The colossal dragon flew straight up. The air turned colder and I started to feel lightheaded as I struggled to breathe. Luckily, stopped before the air became too thin. With a powerful flap of her wings, she twisted mid-air and came to a stop.
“Do you see?” Vissna asked as she hovered high in the sky.
“See what?” I growled through gasps of breath. We had flown so high, the soldiers on the ground were not even visible. Even the floating island of Dragon’s Nest was only a dot in the distance. At first, my eyes were attracted to the sprawling blood mist. It stretched out as far as the eye could see in one direction but while that was concerning, I doubted it was the reason Vissna dragged me all the way up into the stratosphere. I continued to look down and noticed something strange. Centered on the plateau where the army was gathered and stretching out in every direction everything was brown and lifeless. The brown area made a perfect circle with our camp at the center. Everything outside the circle was still green and vibrant so, I could not blame the strange phenomenon on the cold winter nights. “What is that?” I asked curiously. “Why is only the area around our camp brown?”
“This is the consequence of your actions,” Vissna replied gruffly.
Before I could reply, Vissna folded her wings. The two of us plummeted out of the sky like a rock and fell back down to earth. Wind whipped at my face and hair as we fell. The ground started getting closer and bigger. For a moment I started to worry that Vissna was going to crash into the earth of purpose. My domain condensed into armor and I winced in preparation for impact but when we were less than three meters from the ground, she spread her wings and made a sharp curve to level out.
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Without any warning, Vissna suddenly loosened her grip on me. I was sent tumbling across the ground with enough force to leave long scars in the dirt. Luckily, my domain armor had already been active or I would have been joining my mom and dad in the infirmary. As it was, I still felt terrible as I picked myself up out of the dirt.
Vissna’s wings shook the air as she landed next to me. My annoyance at her actions was completely ignored as she pointed one giant claw towards the ground nearby. “Look.”
Trying to straighten the countless knots now in my hair, I turned to where Vissna pointed. My hands froze as I looked. Vissna had dropped me at the very edge where the brown grass and the green met. I was taken aback by what I saw. It was as if someone had drawn a perfect line in the ground separating the land of the living and the dead. What was most shocking, however, was that the zone of decay was spreading and growing at a rate visible to the eye. Green grass wilted into dry husks. Leaves turned and fell from the trees. Even the dirt dried and cracked as if it had suffered months of drought in just a few seconds. The area continued to expand at an alarming rate. The nearby greenery was eaten away in moments, leaving behind only decay.
“I… did this?” I mumbled in disbelief.
“That’s right,” Vissna said. I could feel her eyes glaring at my back as I watched the ever-growing zone of lifelessness. “While I did say you could revive a hundred beings without permanently damaging the world, I never imagined you would be foolish enough to try reviving that many people all at once. The energy for their rebirth must come from somewhere. I thought you understood that. Now, because of your thoughtless action, life is being drained from this land. This plague will continue to spread until enough energy has been siphoned to the corpses you refused to let stay dead. For generations to come, this land will be nothing more than a lifeless desert for as far as the eye can see.”
I thought back to the enormous size of the ever-expanding dead zone I had seen from the sky and felt a chill down my spine. If the territory continued to grow, nearby villages or maybe even cities would be swallowed before all my immortal guards were revived. I could not help but compare it to the Demons blood mist and the desolation it caused to the land.
I felt a bitter taste in my mouth as I turned back to Vissna. “Is there a way to stop this?”
The dragon narrowed her eyes as her nostrils let out a puff of air. “Only by killing the soldiers you are reviving and allowing the energy to return to the realm may this land eventually recover. Even then, it will still take several years to undo the damage you have caused.”
“I see,” I said slowly. I closed my eyes and took a moment to think. I remembered an argument I once had with my teacher about one of his scorched earth tactics and chuckled softly. After a long moment, I spoke. “We will continue the as we were. I will not stop the revival of the soldiers.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I felt the temperature drop significantly. Even my blood felt like it was turning to ice as Vissna growled. I could feel the bloodlust pouring out of her and for the first time since her revival, I felt a sense of real hatred pouring out of her body like a boundless sea. “You would purposely destroy this land?”
I shook off Vissna’s imminent threat and pointed into the distance where a faint red haze was still visible against the horizon. “No more than the blood mist will. This is war. Many of those I have revived will likely die before this is over. Then, the energy in their body will return to the realm, right? If it will take years for this land to recover either way, what difference would it make if we stop it now?”
In a blur of motion not matching Vissna’s massive size, her large talon reached out to grab me again. Unlike before however, I was prepared this time. I used my domain to propel me backwards as her claws sliced into the ground.
“It is those very thoughts that bring entire realms to ruin,” Vissna growled. The land around her began to freeze over as her emotions boiled over into the real world. “As a dragon, it is my sacred duty to keep the balance. I will not let you destroy it!”
I raised my hands over my head as I slowly backed away from the angry dragon. “Ok, ok, we can talk this out. We are on the same side, remember? I don’t want to see this realm destroyed any more than you do.”
Vissna calmed down slightly at my words. She let out a huff that layered the ground in front of her in a thick layer of ice. She glared at me silently for a long moment before closing her eyes. “Fine, keep your toys. You are still young. You have not seen what I have and do not understand the strain you are putting on the realm by taking this action. I will allow this if you agree to two of my conditions.”
“What conditions?” I asked skeptically.
“First, you must spend the next few days with me. We will work to mitigate the damage you have caused as much as possible. It will not help much but it is better than nothing. Second, you must consult me before you revive anyone else. We can work together to find a location that can handle the strain of revival without destroying the land. These are my two conditions. Agree and we can remain allies. Refuse and I will treat you no differently than the others that once threatened the balance of the realms.”
“You are not giving me much choice,” I mumbled. I hated that Vissna was basically forcing me into this agreement but I also understood why she was doing it. I did not like what was happening to the land any more than she did. To defeat the Demons did not mean we had to become like them. After a few moments of deliberation, I eventually nodded. “I agree. For the duration of this war, except for reviving my loved ones should something happen to them, I will consult you first. That is as much as I am willing to concede.”
Vissna bared her fangs slightly but also nodded. “We have an agreement then. Break it and I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth, Demons or not.”