Axel turned to Kyle as the man began to gather his magic once more.
"I don't think he's on our side or a bystander," he said.
Kyle nodded his agreement. "I'm not sure what that thing is, but I don't like the look of it."
A sound like rushing liquid, that sounded even over the roaring wind and cacophony of magic already present in the room, reached their ears. The man was now pulling magic power out of his own body. Black liquid that reached up and blew in the wind like flames flowed out of the cracks in the ground and from the man's hands, swirling along with every element already whirling around the man's body to create one massive, dense orb of pure, unbridled magic power. Axel gritted his teeth against the sudden force that shot through the room, a nonphysical, ethereal force that radiated off of ancient beings of pure power. Axel's eyes widened against the blowing wind as he recognized the necklace lying in the man's hands. Information began to run through his brain.
A necklace with five jewels in it, each shining a different color as they hung from a golden chain.
A thousand-year-old wizard trying to wake the Elder Dragons.
The elemental orbs that took the place of the elemental gems, keeping the world intact and whole.
The man the Gem Keepers were hunting, in hopes of restoring the land they lived in.
Axel's eyes narrowed as his gaze swept over the sleeping dragon.
He recognized it as well.
Strikingly similar to monstrous dragon that burst out of the Raik Mountains on Falnear, crashing towards him and the Gem Keepers with the force of a natural disaster, whose power burst forth to burn even the air around them when it managed to reach the Elder Dragon's Gem stored inside the castle.
An Elder Dragon.
An ancient monster that could rival even Shadowfang, who the Gem Keepers feared with all their might.
The dragon's eyes snapped open at the sudden burst of magic. Even from such a distance, the pure malice in the dragon's gaze, the overpowering, unrelenting hatred for reality itself, forced Axel's body to freeze up.
The dragon's gaze didn't fall on Axel, however, the dragon was looking at the man standing before him.
With a voice that seemed to speak out of the void, shaking the cavern with its mere sound, the dragon spoke.
"Azor."
"That makes three," Azor replied, looking small and insignificant before the dragon's massive head that reared up above the ground. "Four more to go."
The dragon's eyes flashed slightly in understanding. "Why do you wake us?"
"The time has come for your rule to be reinstated," Azor said.
The dragon frowned in confusion.
Azor continued speaking. "The High Council is all but disbanded. The Shadow and the Overseer are dead. Kovo dwells in another dimension, and the Rivyrae Queen refuses to leave her place down south."
At each mention, the dragon's face straightened. Axel's mind flashed with each word Azor spoke.
The High Council, the group the Dark Lords claimed to be part of.
The Shadow, the name that sounded disturbingly similar to Shadowfang, who the Gem Keepers feared.
The Overseer, the four-dimensional being killed by Shadowfang.
Kovo, the wizard trapped in the Beyond.
The only one Axel, didn't recognize was the Rivyrae Queen, but from the immense roster Azor listed off, he doubted it was anyone to scoff at. The dragon seemed to know this too, as the massive creature stood up to his full height at the next words Azor spoke.
"Of those strong enough to challenge the Elder Dragons, none remain," Azor said with finality.
A deep rumble shook the cavern in violent, repetitive bursts. A sound like the crashing of two mountains together echoed through the cavern.
The dragon was laughing.
"Good," the dragon said. "Where is my gem?"
"On the island southwest of here, in the deepest floor of the castle," Azor replied. "I won't go with you. I need to wake up your brothers and sisters."
The dragon laughed again, a noise that almost burst Axel's eardrums and almost knocked him out of the hole in the wall onto the ground from the vibrations that shook through the cavern.
"Very well," the dragon said, turning to leave.
A bright, glowing light appeared again as Azor put the necklace back inside the device on the table and turned, stepping through the radiant, human-sized glow, disappearing through it in an instant, plunging the cavern into complete blackness once again. Silence fell, broken only by the dragon's immense footfalls and the crashing sound of an earthquake as the dragon roared. All of a sudden, the darkness disappeared. A gaping hole, as large as the cavern itself, now lay bare in front of the dragon, opening up into the cold night air as water began to flood in. In a single roar, the dragon had blown a hole through the side of the mountain and into the massive river splitting Argean in half. As the dragon violently shoved his way through the hole, uncaring of the debris falling on his massive body as he moved, the cavern began to collapse.
"Axel?" Kyle asked.
"GO!" Axel yelled, turning back as the monstrous cavity began to cave in on itself, shaking the ground and sending rubble flying.
Kyle understood immediately, drawing his daggers and turning into a dim blue streak as he darted down the path they just came down and back up the rift. Axel focused for a split second hands resting on his broadsword as white flames erupted from his hands and ran down the blade, before dashing forwards, the world slowing to a crawl around him. His sword swing wildly, breaking holes in rubble that tried to block his path and crush him, and sending sweeping swaths of flame through the neatly sliced shards of rock that Kyle left in his wake as the pair cannoned through the passageways and emerged into the mountains in a fiery burst.
Kyle landed heavily on his feet and turned around as Axel landed by him.
"That guy," Kyle said, panting not from exhaustion but from the struggle to piece his chaotic thoughts together. "He- the light-"
Axel let out a curse in response.
"He's the one who brought us here," Kyle snarled, finally scraping together a coherent thought.
Rage like molten magma ran through Axel's veins but his mind was focused elsewhere.
"That was an Elder Dragon," Axel said, his voice halfway between rage and fear.
Kyle cursed angrily and violently threw his daggers at the ground, sending them careening into the night sky before sticking into the rock around them.
Axel had fought an Elder Dragon before, with all five Gem Keepers at that. While he had not been in peak condition, the six of them had lost miserably.
And that was before it had gotten to its gem.
"We're going to Ido," Kyle said, his voice eerily calm. All the rage within him had boiled down at the sight of a real Elder Dragon, leaving behind nothing but a dull anger and an ever-creeping despair. The daggers he threw turned into a blue streak as they yanked themselves out of the ground and flew back into his grasp. "We need to warn them."
"Lead the way," Axel said, beginning to channel his energy and focus into his sword.
Kyle's furious afterimage and a sonic boom was all that was left behind as Kyle shot off into the forest towards Ido's castle, with a burning white blaze following him closely as Axel's path traced fire through the night.
-
Qassot retracted all of her swords to form a protective shield around her and Riselus as she witnessed the massive dragon drop into nothingness on the other side of the desert and pull itself up out of the ground underneath where they were just standing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cyil and Aavern dart backwards over the massive hill that Riselus raised out of the ground to conceal Ido's efforts to create a portal to take them to the Beyond. Near the ocean, she could see Xenon crouching, hands on the ground, eyes narrowed in focus as he created something else, something hopefully as powerful as the strange weapon earlier that struck with an explosion like Cyil's fireballs and power like Aavern's light beams.
Qassot fanned her swords out once more and sent them at Kluxon. They would do minimal damage, mere scratches that the Elder Dragon could heal in minutes, but she wanted to keep the dragon away from Xenon, in hopes that he would create a weapon that would turn the tide of battle.
She glanced at Riselus as he focused, warping the rock under them to pull them away, out of Kluxon's reach, and reached out a claw. A translucent green stream reached out from her and connected her to Riselus, restoring his energy. Qassot let out a sigh as she felt her own vitality flowing out of her, but she didn't have to move very much. She looked straight at Kluxon's eyes as he was assaulted by a thousand swords, turning to focus his furious gaze on her and Riselus, sliding away and out of his grasp.
The dragon roared angrily and lifted a massive claw into the air, a dense black aura collecting around its huge claws. The dragon slammed his claw into the ground, creating an immense shockwave that burst outwards with a swarm of black energy like flies. Qassot's eyes widened as she looked, and tried to command her swords to fly back, but they were too slow. In a moment of panic, she covered her face with her gauntlet just before the energy flashed through the air and crashed into her, sending pain like a thousand fiery swords stabbing into her chest all at once through her body.
A primal noise erupted from Qassot's mouth as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Pain like a ravenous beast tore at her and tried to drag her mind into the darkness even as Riselus looked back in worry and asked a question she could not hear over the rushing roar coming out of her own mouth. The pain spread through her body and through her very bones, flashing through her entire being in a single instant, repeating its victory lap a hundred times a second. It was all Qassot could do to stay awake.
As the pain eventually dulled, Qassot was able to locate the source of the pain as she struggled to open her eyes, gasping at every movement, with even the slightest twitch of her body, then gasped again, throwing her into another fit of screaming, as she saw the massive black blades sticking out of her body.
The energy Qassot saw rushing at her was actually a storm of black blades, tiny in comparison to Kluxon, but still larger than Kyle's daggers, and numerous enough to strike Qassot four times even at such a distance. Qassot's eyes roamed about wildly in their sockets, struggling to see anything at all through the blur and encroaching darkness that threatened to take her consciousness once more. In one last burst of determination, with what weak spark was left in her amidst the roaring pain that consumed her entire being, she redirected the energy she sent to Riselus into herself, struggling to force her gem to heal her own wounded body.
The pain began to dull, down from excruciation she felt in her very soul to a piercing buzz that kept trying to rip her heart out, but did not go away. Past a certain point, the pain stopped diminishing. Qassot managed to open her eyes to try to see what happened to her, but her shock was enough to send her back into a spiral of pained screaming, now muffled by her violently clenched teeth.
Two blades had cut deep into her chest, sticking halfway through her body and pinning her to the rock floor that Riselus had been moving them around on. Her gauntlet had served her well, seeing the other blade lying around on the ground nearby, already dissipating and fading away, but to Qassot's right, on the ground in a bloody mess, lay her right arm in two parts, cleanly shredded by the pair of blades that had slammed into it and cleaved it off her body.
Qassot's legs froze up and became numb as a mixture of pain and a tingling sensation rushed through where her right arm used to be, along with an uncomfortable lightness as she involuntarily moved her right side, accompanied by lightning bolts that flashed through her insides and into her chest as the black blades that were impaled through her shuddered and faded away, leaving behind a creeping black rot that spread from the where the blades hit, invading and painfully outlining every jagged, exposed piece of flesh that the cold night air flowed through.
"Are you okay, can you hear me?"
A high-pitched, panicked voice reached her ears, still filled with a distinct buzz and fog. Qassot managed to turn her head to the side and look at the source of the noise. Riselus had managed to deposit her out of the dragon's range of influence, near to where Ido was standing, where Cyil and Aavern had retreated. Two shocked and worried furry little faces where looking down at her. Qassot tried to speak, but the gaping cavity in her chest immediately twinged, sending agony shooting up her spine.
In the distance, yet still too close for comfort, Qassot heard Kluxon roar in anger.
"Go keep that thing busy!" Riselus roared, sending Qassot into another agonized twitching fit. Aavern and Cyil hurriedly flew off, casting a few anxious glances at the wounded dragon, before darting off over the crest of the hill Riselus raised, shining brightly with light and flame as they disappeared.
"Don't say anything," Riselus commanded, stopping Qassot before she could try to force any words out of her mouth.
Qassot gave him a long look and sighed slightly, a motion that send thorns ripping through her lungs.
"I'm going to go help them," Riselus growled, giving Qassot a stare that radiated his stern command. "Stay here and don't move."
Qassot could only lock eyes with him and nod slightly in response. The ground rumbled as Riselus left, followed closely by massive rocks that yanked themselves out of the ground and threw themselves towards where the dragon was. Bright flashes of light and blasts of fire joined the flying boulders.
Qassot glanced to the side, where Ido was standing, back facing her, struggling and gritting his teeth as the black orb in front of him grew slowly, minutely, so slowly that Qassot could barely notice. Magic poured out of Ido's hands as he used every ounce of his will to break the barrier between dimensions.
"It's almost open," Ido said, having felt her gaze. "I had a hard time since the Dimensional Link is so unstable, but it will only be a few more minutes now."
The roar of the dragon resounded over the crest of the hill as a swath of the night sky and part of the dune vanished with Kluxon's breath. Qassot could suddenly see Kluxon, roaring in anger as two small lights, one blinding white and one burning black, swirled around his head, throwing beams of light and black and white flames at the dragon. Massive rocks threw themselves threw the air, breaking apart on contact with Kluxon's black aura and doing little else but distract him slightly. Qassot could even see Xenon, far off in the distance, pulling what looked like a much larger version of the tubes he was launching at Kluxon earlier out of the sand, still forming part of it near the bottom.
They can't win.
Qassot's eyes blinked slowly as flames danced around the Elder Dragon, glancing harmlessly off of his aura.