"Excellent!" said the creature with a broad grin on her face, "Let's get right to it, shall we?"
"No"
The creature frowned in confusion and asked, "No?"
"Not before you heal her", Lucas pointed at Caitlin.
"Ah, I see", the creature nodded in response. Her eyes glowed briefly and some invisible force tugged the dagger out of Caitlin's abdomen. Now that the dagger had been pulled out, Lucas expected blood to start flowing like a river but instead whatever magic the creature was using was repairing Caitlin's organs at an alarming rate.
'Of course a monster like her would have some sort of regeneration magic' thought Lucas with a bitter expression on his face.
"There, good as new", said the creature as she finished her handy work ,"Now your turn"
Reluctantly, Lucas nodded and approached the statues. He completely ignored the six smaller ones and walked up to the largest one. It towered over him at pretty much double his size and the aura he felt from it was so menacing that Lucas had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from turning around and running.
"W-What do I need to do?" asked a pale faced Lucas as he endured the suffocating aura.
"You have to use your blood to undo the seal", the creature explained ,"Not too much, even a drop will do. Simply let your blood fall onto the statue and say what I say"
Wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, Lucas bit into his thumb and let a drop of his blood fall onto the foot of the statue. As soon as the droplet came in contact with statue's surface it was quickly absorbed.
"Now repeat after me", the creature instructed, "Let the veil fall and the chains break"
"Let the veil fall and the chains break-", Lucas repeated.
Lucas kept chanting the words and as he did, several cracks appeared and spread along the statue's surface. White light seemed to seep out of them as the aura around it grew as well.
"-May the frozen hands of time turn once more and the threads of fate weave once again", Lucas finished with his face as pale as a sheet and his body drenched in sweat.
[System: You have successfully undone the seal binding the
CRACK!
CRACK!
BANG!
The statue suddenly exploded in a burst of blinding light. Lucas was thrown all the way back towards the entrance of the room and his body slammed into one of the pillars. He couldn't even muster the energy to groan in pain as the incantation had taken all the energy he had to give.
[System: You have successfully completed the Unique Quest!]
[You have received ×1 Chaos Core…]
Lucas could barely register any of the information he had just received from the system as his consciousness slipped away and he passed out.
"Freedom at last! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!"
A new voice now filled the room. The large obsidian statue that had stood in the center of the room was no more. In it's place stood a tall handsome man draped in expensive-looking green robes.
"Ha Ha Ha…ah, wait a minute", the man suddenly stopped and looked around himself. He took in the sight of the chained up creature, the four humans and lastly, the other obsidian statues surrounding him.
A frown appeared on his handsome face, "Just how long have I been sealed for…?"
"This servant greets his Majesty, the Dragon Emperor!"
"Hm? Oh, Aria! Is that you?", asked the man as he studied the chained up creature.
The creature, Aria, lowered her head slightly in an attempt to nod.
"Forgive me for not being able to greet you properly, your Majesty", Aria apologized.
"Yes, it seems you have found yourself in quite the predicament", the Dragon Emperor remarked as he walked towards her and examined the chains binding her. After few minutes, he stepped back and said, "Why don't we change that…"
"I hope you don't mind, little human, but I'll be borrowing this", said the Dragon Emperor as he raised his hand. In his hand that had been empty not to long ago, he now held a long object that kept dripping red at one of it's ends.
"Wait, isn't that…an arm?!" the assassin suddenly exclaimed after he looked closer at what the Dragon Emperor held in his hand.
"AARRRRGHH! MY ARM!" shouted his comrade who stood beside him. The mage dropped to one knee as he lost a lot of blood from the arm that had just been ripped off his own body without him even realizing or even seeing a single thing! He gritted his teeth and quickly brought his left hand to the wound and used one of his flame skills to burn it and stop the bleeding before it could get any worse.
"Relax, little one, I only borrowed an arm", said the Dragon Emperor with a shrug of his shoulders, "It's not like I asked to borrow your head now, did I? Or maybe I should have…?"
The Dragon Emperor only mumbled the last part to himself but the mage still managed to catch it. Beads of sweat dotted his pale face as he backed away from the Dragon Emperor for fear of him acting on his unreasonable thoughts.
"Oh forget it. I already have all I need anyway", said the Dragon Emperor as he dismissed his earlier idea, much to the mage's relief.
The assassin moved closer to him and asked, "H-How are you faring, Richard?"
"Oh I don't know, Gerard, what do you think?" the mage, Richard, answered sarcastically as he gestured towards his lost limp. He then turned his attention back to the Dragon Emperor and watched as he used the blood from his arm to write some strange symbols on the chains binding Aria as well as the other statues ,"Let's just hope we can get out of here soon. An arm is a small price to pay if it means we can make it out of here with our lives"
Gerard nodded in agreement and his eyes then caught sight of someone moving on the floor. A girl in velvet mage robes and a hat that had fallen to her side, revealing her long locks of brunette hair. Groaning, she rubbed her the back of her neck and took a moment to adjust herself.
"Hey Richard", said Gerard as he pointed towards the girl ,"Ain't that the young lady who got stabbed earlier?"
"Oh yeah, you're right", Richard grunted in response, "To be honest, I had kinda forgotten about her during the whole incantation that young boy was performing"
Gerard hesitated for a brief moment before he slowly walked over to where Caitlin was and pulled her back to where he and Richard had been standing. There was no telling what could or could not provoke the Dragon Emperor after seeing what he had done to Richard and said what he said. So he thought it was best if they kept their distance for now.
"Lucas…", said Caitlin, when she realized that she couldn't see him anywhere, "Where is he? Where's Lucas?"
Caitlin's heart thumped heavily in her chest as her eyes swept frantically across the huge throne room. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she was about to assume the worst before a hand was placed on her shoulder.
"Relax, girl", Richard reassured her before he pointed towards the entrance. Laying unconscious and slumped against one of the pillars, was Lucas. Caitlin immediately ran to him and let out a sigh of relief when she that he was still breathing and wasn't badly hurt physically.
"The poor boy's probably spent after freeing that…weird emperor guy", Gerard explained the situation to her.
As if on cue, it seemed like whatever the Dragon Emperor had been up to had finally been finished. The group tensed up as they saw him look at his faithful maid and the six statues before he snapped his fingers.
"Shatter.", ordered the Dragon Emperor.
CHINGK!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The strange chains that had bound Aria for so long finally gave in and fell to the floor. In addition, each of the statues seemed to burst and the aura in the room suddenly got even heavier than before. Along with Aria, six beings now stood before the Dragon Emperor.
"I have been restricted for so long that I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to move", Aria was the first to speak as she finally stretched herself for the first time in over three eons.
"What is this place? It's such a dump", a voice grumbled not too far away from her.
Aria turned to face who had just spoken with a bright smile on her face, "It's nice to see you as good as always, Dagro"
The man, Dagro, was a towering figure who was nearly twice her size. He had wild spikey red hair and yellow reptilian-like eyes. Unlike everyone else around him who were dressed more sophisticatedly, he wore nothing on his upper body, displaying his bulging muscles. All he wore was some heavy black armor leggings and combat boots.
"Huh? Is that supposed to be some kinda joke?", Dagro snapped at her in an annoyed tone, "I feel like I just woke up from a two century long nap and someone just decided to dumb me in the middle of nowhere while I was asleep. What's so good about that?!"
Dagro was ticked off at the fact that he couldn't seem to recall anything from before he had just woken up and wanted to take out his frustration on someone. However before he could say anything else, Dagro leaned his head back just in time as an object whizzed past his head and struck the wall past him.
"Don't talk to Big Sis like that or I'll cut you up", threatened the girl who had just attacked Dagro, glaring at him with clear killing intent. She had short snow white hair and a fringe that covered her left eye. In her hands, she held a couple of long and thin stakes made of bone.
"Oooh, there they go again!"
"Off they go!"
"Again! Again!"
Three voices jeered the two from the sidelines. The owners were three relatively little men and they all shared the same appearance. Dirty blond hair and scrunched up little mischievous faces. The only differences amongst them seemed to be their different colored outfits as one wore all blue, one all red and the other all green.
"Tsk! What a bother", Dagro muttered when he saw the white haired girl still glaring at him. He held his hands up in surrender and said, "Relax, Selei, I wasn't gonna do anything"
"Hmph!" Selei harrumphed before walking to where Aria was standing.
"Well, you all seem…as energetic as ever", said the only person out of them all who hadn't spoken yet. She had the appearance a mature young woman, with a beautiful face and long wavy black hair. Her eyes sparkled with intelligence and cunning, as they swept around everything and everyone in the entire room.
"Mistress!"
"It's the miss!"
"Oh! Haven't seen her in a while!"
The three little men bounced around her, happily chiming all sorts of things. However she must have been used to this kind of treatment because she didn't look bothered in the slightest. She glanced at Dagro briefly but the latter avoided making eye contact with her much to her amusement.
She then looked at Aria and Selei and flashed with a warm smile as she greeted, "As always, it's lovely to see the two of you again"
Aria returned the smile and said, "You are too kind, Mistress Asrige"
Selei didn't say anything and merely nodded. This did not upset Mistress Asrige either as this also seemed to be a usual thing for her. Now that each of them had had a brief moment to get somewhat adjusted to the current situation, Asrige wasted no more time and clapped her hands twice.
CLAP!
CLAP!
SWOOSH!
All seven them seemed to move in an instant and were now lined up in front of the Dragon Emperor. As if pre-rehearsed, they all dropped to one knee and said:
"The Seven Great Calamities greet the Dragon Emperor!"
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A/N: Hey guys!
Don't forget to comment your favorite part and vote with power stones.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the show :)