Seeds of Rebellion
This is a fan fiction of a fan fiction, if that makes any sense. This was written as a prelude; it leads directly onto Unmercyful Death's 'Turquoise'. Written the two chapters as a one piece; it's more like two scenes in a single chapter than two separate things. (I was going to give you a link to the story, but FF won't let me)
Vox Vocis Cruora, Vita, and the Elements are © Unmercyful Death
Seraph, Ash, Corpusa, and Corpselight (the latter three being Elements with permission) are © to me
Darling is © to FloodBait of dA
Anmer Kaamos is © to Drcheerio of dA
Drakengard and any canon characters are © Square Enix
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Mnemosyne
The small, gleaming form dived from the heavens, alighting amidst the scattered embers of struggling campfires and half-hearted complaints. Upon landing, the gold dragon tossed her head negligently at the sour looks cast her way and headed directly for the largest fire, this one in no way struggling. This fire thrived as it took its fuel from no puny dead-wood, but from life itself.
This fire lived, breathed, and raged.
Reverently ducking her head to the living flame, with no show of her earlier cocky self, the Gold Dragon made her report.
"They are as we expected; barely organised and half-insane to boot, but they are where the scouts last reported. They have not moved."
The flame turned, and in the motion a form was resolved. Head, neck, deep chest, powerful wings, the flame was a Dragon, and the dragon was War. She briefly lidded one, blazing white eye before inclining her head once in a slow nod.
"Then we move as we have planned."
The Gold Dragon ducked her head before leaping away into the air, circling round to her personal patch of hastily cleared ground. As she flicked the tips of her long wings in so as not to knock any passing dragon upside the head, a human ran to her side, armour clashing nosily as he moved, a heavy sword with a shield incorporated into its massive hilt over one shoulder. The Gold Dragon nudged him on a heavily armoured shoulder with the tip of her snout, careful not to puncture his shell with any of her own armour or natural spikes. The human wobbled, but caught his balance and managed to glare at the Dragon even through his visor.
"Seraph! I told you not to do that! One of these days you will push me right over, and what if I hurt myself? Eh? On the eve of battle, too, I remind you!"
The Dragon rolled her eyes and started moving towards the communal campfire, which was still struggling, despite the prevalence of fire-breathing dragons in the vicinity. Everyone seemed leery of using their fire now, when the battle was looming large with the nearing dawn. The human kept pace easily with the Dragon, with the ease of long companionship. The human and the Dragon had journeyed together for a long time as mortals reckoned. Not because they were pacted, but because they were simply friends. The Dragon longed for friendship, and the human longed to see a living myth, and so the two had ended up travelling together. The Dragon turned her head, seeing the human at her side, and snorted.
"That was barely a touch! You worry too much about the effects of gravity, Kaamos."
Kaamos snorted in turn.
"Barely a touch indeed! You are a Dragon, lest you forget, and stronger than you reckon. Anyway, that is neither here nor indeed there. Are our enemy where we expect?"
Settling her gold form between a green-scaled Elements Dragon and a near Black Dragon like herself, Seraph nodded her head. Evidently the green Element heard Kaamos' remark, and he made a noise of disgust.
"They sent the Gold one to scout? By Nex, why not just send Corpusa and let her write in flames across the sky! That way we can be doubly sure they know we are here!"
Seraph, still not familiar with all the Elements, knowing only Blood by sight, peered closely at this one. Sickly green scales, and vile yellow frills, his entire form seemed outlined in wraith-like fire. This one was Corpselight, then. The Element that embodied the Will o' Wisp, and in somewhat of an ill humour, it seemed. Kaamos settled himself on the bend of Seraph's folded wing, and lent back against her chest. He glanced up at her and they shared a look that spoke far more eloquently then any words. As it was, they were both saved from defending Seraph's reputation; the massive Black Dragon huffed and turned a heavy head to look at Corpselight with one, purple eye.
"Have you ever seen Seraph fly? No, I can tell from your scorn you have not. Well, let me tell you, back before we Dragons of the two legged persuasion even knew of your kind, save for Vox of course, and we were all flying in force to the Tomb, well, this little gold dragon ran us all ragged trying to keep up! Yes, yes, it was rather a struggle, especially with just the one eye and leg, I can assure you!" The Black Dragon chuckled and took a breath to say something more, when Corpselight suddenly cleared his throat and stood up.
"I, uh, have to go…I think Ash may be looking for me…Farewell!" and he hurried off, the Black Dragon's single eye gleaming with mirth.
"Ahh. It seems no-one has time for old war stories anymore."
Kaamos smothered a laugh, while Seraph answered.
"Not when we have a new war to fight! Thanks for, ah, scaring him off, Darling."
Darling chuckled and flicked a wingtip in semblance of a human shrugging.
"Not a problem at all, you are most welcome. He was starting to incite a rather nasty chill in my scales, anyway."
Kaamos, watching Corpselight's progress through the camp, the Element being hard to miss, what with his own personal light show, snorted.
"Pah. He had no reason to gripe, either! Methinks he just wanted to complain."
An Element sat across from them huffed, evidentially struggling to contain a laugh. Darling made a 'tsk' noise, cocking his head in a parody of a parent scolding a child.
"Vox! That is no way to support your fellow Element! You are supposed to rush to his defence, say something like…'he is stressed' or 'he is nervous'! Not laugh!"
Seraph made a somewhat startled noise, glaring at Vox with an accusing air.
"How long have you been there?"
The red and black Element, one of the most powerful of her kind, giggled.
"Long enough. And he needs putting in his place. Sometimes he forgets and lets his 'exalted position' as embodiment of swamp-gas get the better of him."
Kaamos whistled and turned his attention to the Vital Element.
"Swamp gas, huh?"
Vox grinned at the human nestled within the Gold Dragon's wings.
"Just never call him that to his face. I have heard he once led a human to his death within a marshland just because they mistook him for someone else."
The human rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"I fear no marshland! Ol' Goldy here will pull me out."
Seraph looked down at him with one eye.
"I do not know…Depends if you deserved it or not. Or how recently you have bathed."
Darling thumped the ground with his tail and burst into gales of laughter, which doubled under Kaamos' sour glare. Vox decided against further comment. The rest of the night passed with tales of past battles, of the long journeys, of blood-red skies, and of memories forever embroided into each soul.
Screaming for Vengeance
Both factions were arrayed, resplendent in full force, shields emblazoned with ancient runes shimmering, blades of metals long vanished from mortal memory crackling with power, armour crafted by inhuman hands and minds exuding their own source of light, as if formed from the hearts of a thousand different hued fires. Beneath enclosed helms, eyes that glowed with fey powers shifted uneasily, searching out the eyes of their allies before, as one, each helmed face turned towards the ruby sun that stood at the fore of the army. She blazed with the fires of war, fires that could not be dimmed by any sorrow, never to be dampened by any strife; all of life's hardships served to temper her flames, to forge anew her strength. The timeless years she had flew, she had fought, and sometime along the long, twisting paths of her life, she had become the epitome of War. Her ruby scales were coloured by the blood spilt by her talons, the blood spilt from her own body, the blood of those she treasured. Her fires raged about her body, dancing along her wings, cresting her horns, lending her talons a burning edge, making her eyes burning pools of lava a man could wither within. Her fire burned with the rage of a nation invaded, the blind anger of a warrior wronged, the blood-thirst of the murderer. She was War, epitomised and personified. Long, long ago she had been simply Angelus, another Dragon to be used by the Arch Dragons. She had been their undoing, along with her human, the other half of her soul and being. He sat now upon her neck, in a long accustomed position. Long, blood-stained and battle-worn blade held ever ready, armour gleaming darkly in the weak light, Caim grinned, the expression showing not joy, but a promise of violence, of mad blood-letting. Pacted to War as he was, he had become more than he could ever imagine; he had become Revenge. Driven to a razor-edge between sanity and madness by the sequenced losses of his parents, his kingdom, his friend, and then his sister, he pledged his soul to revenge, his heart to a Dragon, and soared on the wings of despair. Over the course of many wars, the two became as one, and the one became known as War and Revenge, two faces of one soul.
Now they fought in the greatest conflict they had ever known, a war between and against the very forces of existence itself. The Element of Life stood before them, in a mockery of her own powers. Behind her stood arrayed a force of Elements, some unwilling combatants, some blood-bound to follow Vita, and some so past the boundaries of reality, they could not know what they did.
A dragon stood beside War snorted, and the red, flaming dragon turned her head to look at them. Seeing no-one at her head-height, War looked down and came nose to nose with a small Gold Dragon. Though tiny, the Gold Dragon had massive wings, and could easily outpace anything airborne, and her armour reflected this; lightly armoured along her vulnerable belly and long, hooked tail, she was akin to a golden, armoured wasp. Tilting her head cockily at War, the Gold Dragon winked one, green eye at the larger and more imposing Red Dragon.
"Blood, this will be a skirmish to remember! We make it out of this; I will have a story to tell the hatchlings that is for certain."
Before War could answer, a Dragon on her other side, this one larger than even she and coloured black, with thick scales, and only the one eye, as well as only one leg, replied. His heavy horns were adorned with diamond barbs, his already heavily scaled body covered in gleaming plates. He turned his huge head so that his one, purple eye rested on the gold.
"That is assuming we survive and you manage to find a male who can keep up with your chattering."
A third dragon, this one an Element coloured red and black with a frill covering one eye and body sheathed in armour slicked with envenomed spines spoke.
"And your tendencies for adopting every human you find who has not a home to return to."
The Gold took these jests in good grace, and flicked her wing tips in the approximation of a shrug.
"Yes, both of you speak true, to my great sorrow. Alas, I will be forever condemned to be a war hero with no grand-hatchlings to regale with tales of valour!"
In a swift motion, a man perched on the gold dragon's neck pushed back his visor as he lent forwards and craned his neck to peer down at his mount, his eyes startlingly pale.
"This is all very cheery and whatnot, but I do believe we have a war to fight, do we not?"
The red and black dragon, an Element by body-build and a Vital by her domain, snorted and regarded the human with a violet eye. She did not seem much surprised by the human's presence.
"Kaamos? Eager to begin a fight? Vita may as well give up! The End-Times are upon us!" Her voice was full of mock-bewilderment and a comradely mocking tone.
Darling, the heavy Black Dragon, rolled his massive shoulders and thumped his axe-head tail into the ground. He sounded resigned more than angry when he spoke.
"Seraph, where were you hiding him this time?"
Seraph, the Gold, was about to reply with something unconvincingly innocent about Kaamos sneaking away to help her when War grumbled loud enough to draw the attention of all gathered about her and Revenge.
"Enough banter. The human Kaamos has the right of it. This is no egg-gathering so that we might trade gossip and witty banter over the heads of hatchlings. We come this day to unseat a tyrant."
Vox Vocis Cruora, the Voice of Blood, the red and black Element that stood with War and the others, sniffed, and tossed her head towards the opposing army.
"Indeed. Stand firm and without doubt or misgivings, else you will not regale anyone with any tales, Seraph."
Seraph rolled her eyes, and shrugged, making Kaamos glare at her as she jostled him.
"Very well, I will curb my tongue and instead vent all mischief and ire at the enemy."
Darling shook his head, with something like a sigh.
But before anyone could say anything more, the mood shifted, as the wind will shift and carry embers towards dry grasses. The charge began, the deathly beat was struck, battle hymns were screamed to the sky, blades were whetted, and armour was struck blow after blow.
Those that fell slipped into endless dreams of crimson madness, and those that stood became heralds of a new dawn in the grand ages.
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Author's note: Damn, do I know how to write a stirring charge or what? This whole story (especially towards the end of the second part) is doubly better when you listen to 'March through an Endless Rain' by Pyramaze when reading.