A/N: The chapter ahead is raw, which means not been proofread yet nor edited.1***1"Have you found them?"
The Ki'zaar turned around and see Emperor Ohms coming. Prince Valor placed his hand on the Ki'zaar's shoulder and gave him a handkerchief. The Ki'zaar is in distress. It's like his life is slowly leaving him once again.
"H-Have you?"
Emperor Ohms stopped from his pace and clenched his fists tightly.
It's been a month. That's how long it has been since their wife tried to kill them and left with their sons. Before they were eaten whole, the knights alerted Empress Clastigaufeas about what took place in the throne room. At first, they couldn't lift her black magic. They've never seen magic like that before. That is because Azarese was the first and only Azarese knows how to wield it.
There was a bunny.
A bunny saved them. They don't know what that is, but one thing they were sure about is it was from Prince Vars. The bunny gnawed and bit Eins despite Hands being both invisible and invincible. Eins was gravely hurt, that's why its grip loosened for a second. That second was enough for Emperor Ohms to chant a spell.
One of Hands' many abilities 'black out' one's thoughts. With Eins loose around the Emperor's head, it gave him the miracle to break free.
Of course, they were wounded. The dragon Archmages took their time into healing them since they could not regenerate. When everything was done and they realized what Azarese just did, they all rushed to look for her but she was already gone. Watts tried searching for the bunny but they found it 'dead'. The bunny turned back into being a porcelain decoration, a toy that Solana gave to the baby Prince.
"I couldn't... There's no trace of them in this world... My sons... She can't be this heartless to me. She can't do this to me---"
"K-Ki'zaar!"
Emperor Ohms went to see him for nothing, so he left. It doesn't mean that the Ki'zaar is not doing his best. He sent all his dragons to the sky to look for them everywhere and anywhere. Nobody saw Azarese. They did not see her leave the Palace with the Princes. The Ki'zaar is so heartbroken and worried that he couldn't do one thing right.
The Emperor led him to one place.
"Ohms, have you found---"
The Emperor passed King Liorei by and stood before Princess Lorreign. He placed his hand over her head. She's so confused. And right here and there, he ended her life.
He cut through her throat so deep that when he let her head go, it fell back and hang open.
"OHMS!"
King Liorei shoved him aside and caught his daughter's body in his arms. The Princess was turning into...ashes. Her death was painless: she deserved more than that.
"It was her. She was the one who will kill our sons. Before she could, I will kill her first. I hope you understand, Gerson Liorei. She's only yours anyway. Only you created her---she's not truly our sister by blood."
King Liorei shouted and launched an attack against him, but Celia was the one who received it and she was not fazed by his faked strength.
"She's chaos, such as you."
And then he left with coldness, his fists clenching. He may not show it, but he's as worried and uneasy as the Ki'zaar. He worries for Prince Vars and of course, for his pregnant wife. Her pregnancy is critical. She's carrying an egg that is continuously and gradually growing day by day.
He stopped from walking down the hallways to look outside the windows. The moons are up in different phases. The fourth moon, the one Prince Valerian destroyed, was frozen in place. None of them, aside from the Prince and the Ki'zaar, have the power to restore it. The moon spirits could, but they can't.
Prince Valerian put a curse on the moon that leaves it as is.
~
"It will be full moons soon," Stellandriavia said as she watch the moons over their heads through the windows.
She turned around and faced the dragon descents. They know what it meant, too.
The full moons phase happens as rarely as an eclipse. During this phase, all moons were full and not in different phases. And during this day, dragon eggs were augmented. Augmentation may vary to every egg; but to a royal egg, it's quite special. It was during the full moons where a royal egg creates it connections with the cosmos.
"Prepare yourselves, she will come back to us. She can't go through it without us," Emperor Ohms speak with assurance and confidence. He's throwing nasty glares against Stellandriavia for he blames her. Because of her prophecy, Azarese resorted to killing them and leaving them.
Stellandriavia was humbled; she won't be foolish anymore. She won't challenge them anymore now that she had tasted their power, now that she knows how far they could go and what they can do.
She underestimated them.
"W-What about the Door? Any news about it?" Watts.
It was him who thought that if they couldn't find them anywhere in the world, then they could've gone inside the Door that leads to the Prince's Paradise. They tried calling for it; Emperor Ohms has been summoning it but it never answered to him.
Came at last the full moons.
Her husbands were all gathered in the same room as the bed-ridden Ki'zaar, his heartbreak rend him ill once more. Their silence and the tension between them speak volumes. They all worry for the same woman. They worry for their sons.
Until Emperor Ohms felt chills. His heart twitched.
"Vars..." He trembled.
Something is happening to his boy!
"DOOR, SHOW YOURSELF TO ME NOW!" He yelled anxiously as he stomp his foot to the ground, causing a quake.
His heart keeps on skipping beats. It's driving him delirious. He could feel it: his son is struggling. It was as if... As if---
"Mommy... I-I think... I think Vars is not breathing..." The horrified Prince Maximilien told his mother as he stare at his brother.
Prince Vars had been crying for the whole day. Earlier, his cries became silent and breathless. His whole face is red, but now it's turning pale and violet. He did not only cry but let his abilities run around. It hurt them because they were uncontrollable. And their mother...
Oh, their mother. She's bleeding! Down to her legs, bleeding and writhing!
"V-Vars!?"
Prince Valerian ran from aiding his mother to his youngest brother to see him. He froze when he saw how stiff his brother looked. Prince Vars is not moving anymore. He's stucked on his crying pose and face.
"Mommy, please, let's go out! MOMMY, VARS! VARS! DADDY! HELP!"
Prince Valerian took his brother in his arms while wailing. He shook him, rocked him, talked to him and everything---but nothing works. It gave him a faint relief when Prince Vars moved again only to let out another shaky squall that turned into another silent, breath-holding cry.
Azarese winced and screamed when her stomach feel too painful and hot. It's very hot. Normally, once the dragon egg took its physical form after blending, the mother dragon will lay it at once instead of letting it grow inside their body. It was the father dragon who will warm it and stay on the nest to incubate it until it hatch, since the fathers produce more warmth and balances the anomalies that may occur during the egg's development.
Azarese is not a dragon and she did not lay the egg whilst it's still small. It didn't occur to them that the egg will grow bigger---because they thought it will be in a size of a human newborn.
"A-Aaah... Fuck!"
Azarese gasped for air and groaned. It's so painful that it made her cry.
"Daddy! Help me! Vars! Uncle Watts! Please, someone! Help!"
Prince Maximilien ran to his mother. Though he did not know what to do, he stayed by her side and put a pillow below her head.
"Mommy, are you giving birth? Mommy, you're bleeding! I'm so scared! Let's go out of here! Please, we need the Uncles! Mommy, I'm so scared!"
But Azarese couldn't think straight anymore.
"D-Door..."
The smart Princes picked up what she meant and so, they shouted, "DOOR, SHOW YOURSELF AND OPEN UP!"
As soon as the Door finished its magical formation, Emperor Ohms kicked it open.
"WIFE!"
Prince Valerian ran out to bring his brother to another adult when the Emperor went first to their mother.
"VARS!"
Watts Xirquit took the Prince from him and ordered Celia to call for his father. Wattroid went out of his office with an oxygen tank and placed it on the pale and purplish Prince.
"M-Mi'zaar---"
The Ki'zaar went out of his bed to go and see his wife. Emperor Ohms just then came out of the door while carrying her. He put her on the bed and oh, how terrified their faces came be when they found blood trailing down her legs.
"T-The boy! Watts, give him to me!"
Watts Xirquit passed the Prince to his grandfather and left him to his care. He then went to check up on his wife who's fighting for her dear life.
He looked outside the window and found Stellandriavia standing by it with a smile. Behind her were the three remaining moons...in a full phase.
"Let's cut her open," he decided, which the others found atrocious. Before they could say a thing, he shouted while fretting, "We have to, or the egg will grow bigger until she can't handle it anymore! Will you stand by and watch the egg grow its way out of her!? Pop her like a balloon!? Let's cut her open and take it out while we still have time! That's the only way!"
Azarese, showering in cold sweat, shook her head and crawled away from them while hugging her belly.
"N-N...NO! No... No... My baby... This is my b-baby!"
"Mi'zaar!"
The Ki'zaar collapsed to her side and tightly hold her hand.
"Please... I agree with him. The egg will be safe and you will be safer! You can't handle it anymore. It will grow bigger than it already is! Please!"
She was adamant about the idea. She firmly want to give birth naturally and she will. Even if the process breaks her, she will heal anyway. She won't die, too. She's the true immortal. The only immortal.
"No... My baby... I will birth my baby... I'm gonna fucking push it out of my vagina and I don't care if it breaks me! Cut me open, I dare you! I swear, once you do, you will not see a thing inside me."
"M-Mi'zaar..." The Ki'zaar buried his face on the bed as he weep.
Emperor Ohms went to see his boy. He's crying but not that strong anymore.
"Dada! Uwaaah! Dada!"
Voltage Xirquit passed his grandson to his father. Emperor Ohms feel his son on him with tears of relief.
"Thank goodness. I love you. I love you, Vars. Hush now, my good boy. Daddy is here. We're together now. It's okay... I'm here."
Prince Vars held on his clothes tight and nodded. Celia brought in a bottle of water for the Prince to calm him. Miraculously, he drinks it.
"Be a good boy again with grandpa. Mama needs Dada."
Prince Vars let the bottle go and grabbed onto his collar.
Emperor Ohms smiled reassuringly, "I won't go anywhere. Trust Dada, hmm?"
The Prince slowly let him go and went with his grandfather.
"Take the children out. We'll take it from here," he ordered as he walk to his wife.
Lord Feryzen nudged Prince Valor and nodded at him. They already have Prince Valerian, so the Lord picked up the restless Prince Maximilien and brought them out of the room.
"My Apo!" Emperor Maxism called out in relief as he jog to the Lord to take him.
The terrified Prince Maximilien wailed on his shoulders, blaming him and asking him where he went.
"It's alright now. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you have to go through that. Hush, my little man."
***
Azarese clung onto Watts as she whimpered and moaned to herself. He's helping her feel better by massaging her belly with a special oil that seeps into her skin to cool the hot feeling inside.
Meanwhile, Emperor Ohms is trying to knock some sense into the Ki'zaar. He wants to go with Watts idea: to cut her open by force if needed, while Watts had changed his mind and is coordinating with his Emperor brother and others to find another way.
"It hurts... It hurts so much."
"Do you want to drink water? Is there anything you want to eat?"
She nodded, "Mango."
Celia served her mangoes quickly. They fed her; scooping the mango from a peel using a spoon.
Certain changes had happened to her. For once, her belly would sometimes pulse with energy, where they can see through her and see the magical egg developing inside her. Trails of luminous marking appeared on her skin, and her eyes would flicker from gold to blue to white. These markings pulse with a soft glow that ebbs and flows in rhythm with her heartbeat and the pulse coming from the egg.
"She's not even on labor. How are we going to take the egg out?" Emperor Ohms.
His father scratched his forehead, doing his best to think of a way.
"Is it not smart? Can't we communicate with it and ask it to come out?"
The dragon Archmages gave him an unamused look, and he only shrugged as he dance Prince Vars to sleep. He's drinking pumped breast milk of his mother in a bottle.
"Should we try that?" Lord Feryzen sighed, "Let's ask the Ki'zaar. That may help them form a bond, since once it's out, he will be the one to incubate it until it hatches."
"You make me feel smart," Emperor Ohms.
"You are," Voltage Xirquit smiled and brought his grandson to the window. Prince Vars threw the empty bottle away and stretched.
"Dada da!" He's energized! Time to play!
"Oh, boy! You should be sleeping now!"
Emperor Ohms watched them with a smile before shifting his stares to the Ki'zaar. He was sitting by the bed, meditating as he listen to Stellandriavia's input about how she must give birth to the dragon Prince. And her idea: since they already blended and he had shared himself with her, she must become a dragon, too. In that way can she lay the egg with ease.
"We can't do that. She's not accustomed to being a dragon, yet. She's never tried it. It's too risky, Ki'zaar. Please, I love the idea, but the process of it scares me. Please understand my sentiments; I worry for her and the Prince." Watts Xirquit.
Somehow, the dragon Archmages was on his side.
"That is true. We don't know how the process will be on her since it will be her first. It might put the Prinsiaze on an edge. The Mi'zaar wants to give birth naturally... But it will certainly break her and it will take time for her body to regenerate."
In the middle of their tensed discussion, Voltage Xirquit was among the people who watched how multiple magic circles appeared across the sky. It did not only appear over the Vernignac Empire...but everywhere in the world.
"Uhhm, everyone? Any idea about what that is?"
Across the skies, statuesque figures or beings draped in immaculate white cloaks hover in stillness, casting their silent presence over the lands below. Suspended in the vastness of the skies, they seeme frozen in time. The folds of their cloaks fall motionlessly, untouched by the wind, adding to the sense of their mystery. Their faces are hidden behind golden masks, and over their open palms are diamond-shaped artifact that spins around slowly.
"Da..." Prince Vars blinked his eyes---and the people in white cloaks seemed to look down on right where he is.
"It's them again. Get out of there, Dad!"
Emperor Ohms shouted and spread his hands apart to create an impregnable barrier all over the Palace. Voltage Xirquit was quick to jump aside even though he's puzzled.
"Who are they?"
Emperor Ohms teleported to their side and checked on his son. He became still when he's already been marked.
"Simply call them the Whitecloaks. They're finally making a move. Is it because she's weakened? They're after them." Stellandriavia smiled, "The Princes, her children."
"Bring Maximilien and Valerian here now, Celia!"
"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty!"
Emperor Ohms carried his son. Prince Vars is scratching his face with the back of his hands.
"What does the mark mean? Son, who are they?"
"I don't know. They first appeared when Zodiac was conceived. They were few before, but now... They appear whenever she's with child and fade without a trace once they're dead. I tried catching one but they're intangible."
"Daddy!"
Prince Valerian ran to the Ki'zaar while covering his forehead, "There's a weird drawing on my forehead! And the people outside, they looked at me! I'm scared!"
"Heh. Maybe they're here to bless Mommy because she's having a baby again!" Prince Maximilien scoffed while playing with the daggers he stole from Emperor Maxism.
"Give me that." Voltage Xirquit took the weapons from him and keep it. Prince Maximilien snarled at him but he ignored him.
The Ki'zaar touched the Prince's forehead.
"I think I've seen this before..."
"What is it?"
He didn't get the chance to talk when Azarese yelped as she try to contain her pain.
Yet another matter to set aside. Their plates are way too full they doubt they can take it all at once.
"That's scary," Skadi Eira entranced with Solana. The girl grew.
"Solana, you're grown!" Prince Valerian went to her and looked up because she is now taller.
Solana beamed a smile and twirled, "Right? I'm taller than you, now!"
Prince Valerian pout, "You're cheating! Daddy!" He hugged the Ki'zaar's leg after running to him, "I want to grow bigger! I don't want to be small anymore!"
"But my sweet dragon, I want more of your small years."
Prince Valerian jumped, then threw tantrums. The Ki'zaar sighed and smiled. He's too soft for his boy.
"How about you give this foolish father of yours a very tight hug and a kiss?"
The Prince climbed on him and gave him the tightest, choking hug ever. They laughed when the Prince rained kisses all over his face and he's not stopping. For every kiss he gives the Ki'zaar, he grows by a centimeter.
"You're so beautiful, my sweet dragon." The Ki'zaar run his gentle touch on his face. He's still a child but his features became more definite and ethereal. Once he's grown into a man, all with wings and without will flock all over him to get his affection.
Only one will have his heart, though. For eternity, as long as he shall live.
"That's not fair!"
Prince Maximilien stomp his foot. He's on Voltage Xirquit's shoulders, pestering him to give back his daggers.
"I'm gonna yeet this brat out the window," the man said, barely keeping it together.
"I want to grow, too! Hey, pet! Take me to my first pet!"
"As if he could do something about your pathetic height."
Prince Maximilien pulled his hair.
"You will be small forever, Maxim~" Solana sang teasingly and grinned with Prince Valerian.
"Get the fuck out, children. So noisy." Skadi Eira rolled her eyes and sat on the bed. Then she decided to crawl on it and lay down beside Azarese.
"I'll never have something like that in my body. I made that Eggo outside and it's very easy,"
"Well, f-fuck, we're not the same."
His Equal scoffed, "Yeah. Proud virgin, very tight."
Azarese glared at her, "What are you here for?"
"Glad you asked. I want to see this. I'm surprised to see you make noises and faces like that. Proves that you never grew accustom to pain."
She went closer to Azarese's belly to look through it. Then she went back with an annoyed look on her face and even clicked her tongue. They were alarmed, thinking that there might be something wrong with the egg. Azarese, despite her suffering, managed to mock her with a laugh.
"What? It's better than yours? Loser."
"I'm gonna stab you and pop your eggo."
Azarese only laughed. It calmed her down, Skadi Eira's presence is.
It's nice to have a friend.