Dragonlord

Ep 127. Do You Think Yourself Invincible? (5)

An odd sense of disconnection welled within Aymeia as she came to.

Instead of her icy cavern, the deity found herself kneeling on what seemed to be an old storage room of sorts. Unlike her usual self, she couldn’t feel anything at all from the star beneath her feet – feelings, memories, none of it.

And, worst of all, she couldn’t even recall how she’d gotten herself here.

‘Where even am I…? Did I space out again?’

Aymeia reflexively pulled on her arms to push herself back to her feet. But instead of coming to her aid, her arms refused to budge, screaming in a tearing pain instead.

Only then did she take notice of the three large, bronze-like nails embedded within each limb, pinning them to the wall behind her.

“…”

Try as she might, even her flames were refusing to form, preventing the star deity from destroying her bindings. Gathering mana did little besides exhausting her of what little energy she had left.

“…Dammit.”

Clenching her teeth, Aymeia then prepared to jerk her arms out by force – until a loud bashing noise echoed from the outer hallways.

A second soon followed the first – then a third, then a fourth. Wooden doors slammed open one by one as someone rapidly went about throughout the chambers, as if searching for something in a hurry.

And, after a short silence, the door leading into Aymeia’s own captivity chamber creaked open.

“…?”

“…”

At first, Aymeia had to squint her eyes to make out the rusted pike that had pushed the door open.

After another few seconds of silence, the deity’s eyes locked with a confused cat half who slowly peeked in from outside. At first, the deity thought it was her imprisoner, or short of that, a torturer of sorts – but the half girl didn’t exactly appear to be either, being armed with nothing but a small torch and all.

Deciding that the strange girl didn’t require any attention, Aymeia simply returned to pulling at her pinned limbs.

And immediately, the half girl’s screaming voice followed her actions.

“Wh-what are you doing?! Stop that!!”

The cat half rushed to Aymeia’s side to keep their arms from being torn out. She briefly inspected the devices pinning the deity, and then Aymeia herself.

“…”

The first thing Light noticed were two black-red horns protruding from the imprisoned woman’s head.

The second thing she noticed was their lack of clothing. Instead, the prisoner wore an excessive amount of bandage that covered nearly every single corner of her body. From what little skin she could see, Light could spot patches of charred flesh underneath them.

Aymeia stared back with a suspecting glare, now wary of her unexpected visitor.

“What do you want, child?”

“W…wait, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m just looking for some medicine. I didn’t even know you were here…”

“…”

“Are you…no, stupid question, you’re clearly not okay. Were you fighting the emperor too?”

“…I don’t know.”

“…Huh? Uh…do you know who trapped you here then? How did you get here?”

“I don’t know.”

“…”

After hearing the woman’s stern answers, Light let out a long sigh before asking her final question.

“…Fine. Who are you? At least tell me that.”

“I’m...”

The deity momentarily hesitated, her expression muddled with uncertainty.

Several seconds had to pass before her heavy mind could decide upon an answer.

“…Aymeia.”

“Aym-“

The half girl immediately cut herself off. Her eyes gradually widened in shock and dismay as she stammered to confirm what she’d just heard.

“A…Aymeia? You’re saying your name, right? Like, you just happen to have that name?”

“I’m not too certain of what you mean to say, but I’m the only Aymeia I know of.”

“…”

‘Yeah. You’re the only Aymeia I know too.’

The half girl consciously swallowed her words. It was considered sinful to name a child after the Twelve – hence, someone sharing a deity’s name was an extremely rare occurrence in the first place.

Truthfully, Light would’ve loved to turn around and leave, pretending that she hadn’t heard anything. But after hearing the deity’s name, it was a little too late for that.

“You…do know you go to hell for impersonating a deity, right?”

“You believe that? Felicir’s joke still runs through mankind.”

“…Eh?”

Light struggled to process the situation at hand. Even when she’d been reading ancient texts, she hadn’t struggled this much to process.

‘A deity is being held prisoner…? Are thehy…’

Despite Light’s attempts to remain indifferent, it certainly didn’t help that another deity had robbed her of her home and family. Her mind jumped from one unspeakable crime to another, imagining all sorts hell this particular deity could’ve wrought.

‘…Snap out of it. He’s not the only deity there is. Lady Aldrid was nice to everyone…’

Light rapidly shook her head to snap out of her daze. She quickly placed her torch on one of the empty hangers on the wall before scanning the room they were in, proceeding to check through the rows of shelves on the other walls.

“…Give me a second. I’d help you out, but pulling out those nails right now will probably do more harm than good…I’ll see if there’s anything we could use here.”

‘At least this place looks like some sort of storage. Hopefully the shelves aren’t empty.’

“…”

Aymeia’s eyes warily followed the hurrying half girl. She angrily bit her lips, concerned and frustrated over the current situation.

And finally, what came out of the deity’s mouth was a haphazard mix of worry and anger.

“…You’re far too gullible, halfling. Shouldn’t you question why I’m being held like this? For all you know, I could be an evil monster.”

“Are you?”

“…Well…no.”

“It’s fine then.”

“Are you not afraid of what may come?”

“Of dying to an evil person? Not really. Of someone else dying when I could’ve helped them? A little.”

“…”

As Light practically ignored the deity’s warnings, the shelves she opened quickly revealed themselves to be filled with a series of medicines and healing items. She rapidly plucked out additional wraps of bandages, as well as a number of medicinal concoctions she’d found within the shelves to shove into her small bag.

‘…Need that, need that, don’t need that…what does this do? Whatever, let’s just take it…oh, I could use this too.’

When Light finally returned to Aymeia’s side, the half girl was holding a ball of what looked like cabbage leaves. Without a single warning, the ball was forced into the star deity’s mouth.

“Here. Put this in your mouth.”

“What? Why would I- umpf!”

“Sorry. I’m no expert, but you’ll just have to trust me for now. I really don’t have time to argue with you.”

As drowsiness instantly washed over Aymeia, her closing eyelids caught faint a faint glimpse of the half girl staring at her limbs in dismay – though she couldn’t exactly tell why.

And just a few minutes later, Light was carrying the freed deity out of the keep.

✧ ✧ ✧

When Karas returned to where Light was supposed to be, he initially found nothing but an unconscious red dragon lying on the floor.

‘Where did she…?’

A wave of panic settled in as Karas scanned his surroundings for the missing half girl. But as he did so, he couldn’t help but notice the burns spreading over Ilias’ body.

Reluctantly, the professor knelt on one knee, nursing the red dragon in a hurry.

‘…There shouldn’t have been any survivors around to take her away. She must’ve gone elsewhere to look for things. She’ll be fine…’

Karas endlessly repeated his reassuring thoughts, telling himself over and over that his student would be okay – that even if she were here, she would’ve been telling him to heal Ilias, not go looking for her.1

And, as if to confirm those very thoughts, Light soon emerged from the keep’s entrance. Though, strangely enough, the half girl was struggling to carry a stranger’s body over her shoulders, their feet dragging along the ground.

“…Light?”

“Huh…? P, professor! You’re back!”

With rushed steps, Light quickly made her way back to Karas and Ilias. She practically threw the person over her shoulder off to the side, rummaging through her bag to produce copious amounts of medicinal concoctions she’d procured from the keep.

“I uh, Ilias was losing her voice, her burns were spreading and I didn’t know what to do so I just went in and grabbed everything I could, I…I don’t know what all of these do but I think some of them were for burns, um, and…”

“…Slow down. Ilias will be fine. Take it easy.”

As Karas continued to heal the red dragon, he spared a curt glance towards all the items sprawled about. He quickly examined a few before popping one open, applying the salve over Ilias’ skin.

“Good. We won’t be needing the rest, but this should help combat any residual pain when she awakes.”

“…Wait, are you healing her with magic?”

“I am, yes.”

“…You could do that? When Ilias scraped her knee a few years ago, you said you couldn’t really do anything about a dragon’s wounds, only restore vitality…”

“…I certainly did. As you’ve said, that would be the norm: conventional healing magics cannot heal those of other species, including dragons like Ilias.”

“So then…what’re you doing right now…?”

“I’ve learned other methods since.”

“…”

Instead of questioning her professor further as usual, Light instead let out a long, relieved sigh. As the half girl sunk to the ground, a teary gaze fell over her sleeping sister, shaky breaths slowly calming back down.

“…Thank goodness.”

“…”

This time, it was Karas who began the questioning.

“Now…I believe medicines aren’t the only things you’ve brought with you.”

When Karas’ gaze drifted towards the collapsed, bandaged individual, only then did Light seem to remember their existence.

“Oh, her?...She was in the same room where medicines were being kept. She might’ve been a prisoner, her arms were pinned to the wall…”

Karas narrowed his gaze. The professor’s tone instantly grew stricter as he continued.

“And you thought it was a good idea to free her? Do you even know who she is?”

“Erm…she said her name’s Aymeia.”

“That’s not what I mean, Light! What you did was extremely dangerous. Going into the keep alone was already dangerous enough. What if they’re-“

‘…Wait, what?’

Karas stopped his scolding midway as he began to register the name properly.

He only knew one Aymeia. In fact, the entire world probably only knew of one Aymeia.

Following his train of thought, the professor blankly parroted the name his student had said.

“…Aymeia?”

“That’s what she told me.”

“The Aymeia?”

“…Probably?”

“And you threw her on the ground…? Wait, if she told you her name, she must’ve been awake when you found her. Why is she unconscious?”

“I put her to sleep. I didn’t want her awake when I pulled out those nails. Though…for some reason, they just disappeared before I actually pulled them out.”

“You put a deity to sleep…? With what?”

“…I shoved a ball of ardus leaves into her mouth. They were on the shelves too.”

“…Where did you learn what ardus leaves do?”

“Eh…Mr. Lairaff taught me when I couldn’t sleep. He taught me what a bunch of plants do, actually.”

“…”

As Karas internally questioned how deities had come to have such a low standing within his student’s head, a particularly chatty spirit came to mind – one that was likely at fault for Light’s lack of respect for the Twelve.

‘…Speaking of, where is he?’

As Karas continued to nurse the youngling back to health, he shifted his gaze over into the distance.

The explosion of lights had already stopped some time ago; if Felicir had gone and found Serenis as told, then he should’ve had ample time to return by now.

‘Has something happened to them? Or did his soul disperse before he could make it back? I do hope it’s the latter…’

Karas’ brief train of thought came to an abrupt end as he felt Light’s fingertip gently poking at his back.

“…Professor?”

“Hm?...Ah, my apologies. Were you saying something, Light?”

“Do you…know what happened to Raizel? And…Serenis?”

“…”

“They’re coming back soon, right?”

Karas meekly looked away from his student’s gaze. Despite his affirming answer, his voice carried little confidence in giving it.

“…Of course. I’m sure they will.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Deafening beats stirred the dragonlord awake.

But when her eyes opened, Serenis found herself standing before what seemed to be a giant wall of orange crystals. An endless expanse of dark stretched behind her back, while blinding waves light crashed amongst each other from beyond the crystal surface.

And before her very eyes was the wall’s only gap, leaking bits of flowing light from outside. Although miniscule, the leakage was contaminating the black beneath her feet in small puddles of white.

Serenis meekly watched as the murky radiance flowed into where she stood.

“Ah. That’s gonna need some fixing, isn’t it?”

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Serenis turned to see a blue-haired boy who’d suddenly appeared at her side. His eyes playfully studied the crystal’s gap for a moment, but soon met the dragonlord’s gaze.

The boy then beamed at his companion, casually waving his hand.

“Long time no see. How’ve you been?”

“…”

Serenis had seen this boy a number of times.

But every time she’d seen him, it was through mirrors or surfaces of water. And she’d thought those days were long past.

Hesitating, the dragonlord spoke the boy’s supposed name.

“…Zion?”

“That would be my name now, yep.”

“How are you…here? I thought you were-“

“Just a piece of you now?”

“…”

“The better question is, why are YOU here? Do you even remember what you were doing before you got here?”

“I-“

Despite the simplicity of the boy’s question, Serenis found herself struggling to answer it.

Try as she might, her mind drew a complete blank. The more she pondered, the harder it became to recall what she’d been doing.

“…I…can’t remember...”

“Heh. It’s okay. Look there.”

As Zion pointed beyond the crystal wall, Serenis turned to see the flowing lights beyond it.

As if in response, the waves of light mixed and churned, forming a much clearer image – thousands of it. The wall of crystal quickly became a kaleidoscope of sceneries and memories, taken from those who had walked the star before.

“…”

Some were beautiful, some were ugly; some were memories of one’s happiest days, while others depicted their despair. Given enough time, the everchanging memories would show everything there was to tell about the star’s history.

“See all that? You can take any of those memories for yourself. You just need to let them flow in – like this.”

Bending downward, Zion scooped up a portion of the murky white that had leaked from the crystal’s gap, holding it up towards the dragonlod. Even the small portion in his palms stirred and churned, showing dozens of images that continued to change all the same.

But Serenis frowned her eyes in response. She slapped away the offering, letting the white splatter back onto the dark beneath.

“…None of those are my own. I have no need of them.”

“Are you sure? You said you couldn’t even remember what you were doing before you got here.”

“…”

Serenis balled her fists and clenched her eyes shut. She desperately attempted to recall what she’d been doing before waking up in this strange place – but her memories eluded her grasp, as if avoiding her on purpose.

She’d ruled the dragonkin as their lord, and she’d died upon the world’s summit with her brethren – that much, she could recall. Even in the depths of this endless expanse of darkness, she was certain that those memories were her own.

But now, that was just a distant past.

‘…What was I doing before arriving here?’

In a hesitant tone, Serenis parted her lips once more.

“…It…it was something important. Something I…needed to do…”

“Are you sure? If you can’t remember, then it couldn’t have been that important, right?”

“…”

Was he right? Was that the reason she couldn’t remember?

As Serenis mulled over the boy’s words, her uncertainty slowly turned into certainty. If what she was doing was so important, then surely she’d remember it.

Furthermore, possessing memories of events following her death didn’t even make sense to begin with.

“Perhaps…you’re right. Perhaps it wasn’t that…important…”

As Serenis dropped her gaze, another flickering image caught her attention from the corners of her eyes.

When she turned to one of the white droplets that had splattered onto the black beneath her feet, she saw a silver-colored hatchling, sitting alone in the midst of a destroyed, silent valley. Her lifeless eyes stared into the distant sky,her hands emptily hovering over where her wings had once been.

“…Raizel?”

Soon after Serenis spoke the steel dragon’s name, the droplet then churned and shifted to show that of a red dragon in their hatchling days. The tiny dragon was running towards her nest, pulling the steel dragon along.

Then, a familiar, black-feathered figure, sitting alone in his old office; a half girl, laughing alongside the grown red dragon while sharing their favorite treat with her family; the deities she’d met, the dragonkin she’d found, all of those who Serenis had met in her second life.

Finally, the light showed an all-too-familiar blue-haired enforcer, rebuilding their house for his sibling that would one day return home.

‘…How did I forget all this?’

As Serenis began to grasp at her own memories, Zion likewise looked down on the shifting droplet of white, smiling at its contents.

“It’s okay. Everyone lets go of everything when they die. It’s not surprising that you would, too.”

The boy then let out a small laughter. Even though his expectations had been thwarted, he only felt relief from it.

“But then again, seeing as how it’s showing you exactly what you need…maybe you didn’t let go that much.”

“…You’re wrong. I haven’t died.”

“Oh? Do you remember now?”

Instead of an answer, the dragonlord’s eyes filled with determination. She turned to study the strange world around them, her eyes darting from side to side in search for an exit.

“This is but another dream. I must return.”

“A dream? Are you sure?”

“If it weren’t, you couldn’t possibly exist on your own. ‘Zion.’”

“Well…maybe I’m not Zion then.”

“…I’ve no time to waste with you.”

Before Serenis could walk away, the boy hurriedly grabbed onto the dragonlord’s sleeve. He then pointed towards the crystal wall, at the crashing waves of light – and their glimmering source beyond.

“Woah there, not that way. If you’re looking to wake up, then you’ll need to go the other way. That’s where your heart is. Though…I wouldn’t exactly recommend it.”

“…”

Serenis stared into the little boy, studying his gaze for a hint of deception. But when she found none, she merely let out another sigh, turning around to approach the wall of orange crystals.

Zion watched as the dragonlord soon laid her hand upon its surface, her palms glimmering in magic.

“Woah, wait a second! You’re just going to break the entire thing down?”

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t. It was you who claimed that I must go this way to regain myself.”

“If you break the wall, then all those memories are going to flood into you. Are you sure you want to do that? If you just stay here, then you could at least keep you and your past memories intact.”

“And never wake up from this nightmare?”

“…”

“What point is there in sacrificing the present to retain the past? That’s ridiculous.”

A large fissure fractured along the crystal’s surface. Further rifts webbed through the entire wall as crashing lights rapidly leaked into the open cracks.

But Serenis showed no signs of concern for the memories that flooded into their side. She merely pushed her hand further, letting her own light to intensify – to overwhelm the crashing waves before her.

“W, wait! If you do that, you’ll-“

Ignoring the boy’s concerned yelling, a burst of prismatic lights erupted forth from the dragonlord’s hand, shattering the crystal wall – and also swallowing the crashing waves of light whole. The flooding memories melted away before the woven magic, leaving nothing but an empty expanse of dark before the dragonlord.

As she lowered her hand in satisfaction, Serenis spared a momentary glance to the boy behind her.

“You’ve nothing to worry about. I’ve bested the First before. No divinity of his could threaten my being.”

“…You knew?”

After beaming a small grin, Serenis turned away from the little boy. She approached the distant glimmer in steady steps, eager to leave this ridiculous dream.

Zion soon collapsed onto the ground. Another laughter escaped the boy as he watched the leaving dragonlord.

“Ha…maybe I didn’t even need to make that wall.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Orange lights faded from the dragonlord’s palm as the last of Raizel’s wounds closed up.

As ‘Serenis’ finished treating the youngling, a sudden jolt of pain stabbed at her heart. But even as she winced, her lips curved into a smile from the interactions of her inner self.

She sunk her shoulders, collapsing onto the ground beside Raizel. She leaned her back upon the steel dragon’s belly, letting out a relieved sigh.

“Ouch. Looks like your lord’s going to wake up soon, Raizel. Did you know that she used to sleep most of her days away?...She’s changed a lot.”

The dragonlord gently patted the youngling’s scales. With the last of her wounds closed away, Raizel’s chest was now rising and falling in steady breaths, her expression much more peaceful than before.

Serenis then closed her own eyes, indulging in a small respite before her inner guest’s arrival.

Though…at this point, the guest had practically become the owner.

“Be nice to her, okay? And yourself.”