Chapter 7: Mutual Interest.
"Well, look at you, not as much as a coward as I thought you were."
Thomas absent-mindedly watched as Aran tore through the shadow apes around him, his eyes glowing purple and a deranged look on his face. At first, he honestly thought the kid was just gonna sit there and let the dragon's throat get slit, that would have sucked.
Of course, he did order the ape to do it, a simple subconscious order from his mind to what was left of the ape's. He had been kind of disappointed with the fight the kid put up at first, but this, this was everything he had hoped and more. Aran had been a lot more focused with the fury than he had been the first time, he had actually focused the rage onto a single group. He was learning, good…. looks like his little training session worked out after all.
The young man chuckled darkly as he watched Aran absolutely butcher the shadow apes, normally one of those things could tear a man in two without much effort. Now here he was watching his competition absolutely tear dozens of the creatures limb from limb.
The image flickered, replaying the slaughter through the eyes of a random shadow ape, watching as he cut apart almost the entire horde of undead beasts with nothing more than a dagger and his bare hands. Eventually, he ordered the apes to retreat, no use in wasting any more bodies than what was needed. He gave the command with no more than a thought, and they did so immediately, scattering amongst the trees, leaving a panting and heavily wounded Aran struggling to remain standing in a pile of ape bones. Klein leaned closer to the image, a small, expectant smile playing across his lips.
"He's gonna pass out."
Aran looked around him in a trance-like state, most likely in shock, he finally settles his gaze on his friend and tries to take a step forward-
"Wait for it…."
-and collapses instantaneously.
"Called it!" Klein hopped up from the metal folding chair he sat in and snapped his fingers before immediately heading for the door of the dimly lit room, but slowed his pace at the sound of crackling.
"CRZK! CZZT!"
The T.V that had been displaying the image shuddered behind him before its screen exploded in a mess of glass and purple sparks. Sending shards of glass spraying all over the chair he had been sitting on. Thomas regarded the scene with a raised eyebrow and a displeased frown, that had been the third time this week.
"Aw, s**t forgot about that." He approached the chair and began to pick the shards out of the leather. Grumbling to himself as the glass left small cuts on his fingers.
Scrying was usually done best in a river or other body of water, with tech it usually didn't end well, technology as a whole actually didn't seem to work that well with convexity save for a few exceptions, the boss had said it was simply a matter of improvement and refinement, to not as much as force the image to him as directing the flow of events towards him, or rather his mind. In his opinion, a lot of it just seemed like a load of crap that some idiot Dungeons and Dragons player would be spewing in his mom's basement. But when it comes directly from the proverbial mouth of an evil dragon overlord that appears to you in your dreams, you tend to develop a little imagination when it comes to stuff like that.
"F*cking magic bullsh-"
The door opened in front of him, squeaking loudly and tearing him away from his internal monologue, a burly man in a kevlar vest cradling a submachine gun in his arms stepped into the room, tense and finger on the trigger. Thomas tensed slightly, but didn't let it show, he was a lunatic to these mercs, that was the only way for a kid like him to keep them in line, most had laughed at the idea of working for someone as young as him, that was what the first ones did when he approached their leader with his 'proposition' but, one decapitated warlord and brutalization of three or four rebellious subordinates later, and both the warlord's men and the mercenaries he had hired had fell either under his control or into his employ they feared him now, but they sure as hell followed his orders. Regardless of that, he didn't need to be shot by some jumpy merc who got too scared or got some half-assed war flashback as a result of his powers. He eyed the gun the man cradled and scowled, slowly approaching the man before putting on his mask of intimidation.
"What is it?"
The young man craned his head up to look the man in the eye, staring directly into his subordinate's eyes in a manner that promised pain if his behavior wasn't corrected, the shifted his gaze down to look at the gun once again, the mercenary gulped, nervous but seemingly got the message, the soldier's skin turned pale as he shifted from foot to foot and slowly removed his finger from over the trigger of his weapon, flicking on the safety as well.
A majority of the men that worked for them had been like this ever since they first saw him use convexity, he had exploded the head of an insubordinate young mercenary who thought he could handle him, the guy held a pistol up to his head and started screaming about some religious crap, Thomas had barely picked up the language at the time and didn't understand half of what the guy was saying. Of course, the mercs could also have started noticing the shadow apes watching them, the things liked to hide in the dark, the sadistic freaks probably snatched one or two of the guys and had some fun with them, he had heard some complaints about strange noises at night, but no disappearances, so either he was wrong or they were too scared to bring it up.
The man muttered something unintelligible to him in Afrikaans, Thomas to pinch the bridge of his nose and held his finger up in a sign to wait. He closed his eyes and strained his mind for a brief moment and felt the familiar pain of convexity-fueled magic rewiring his thoughts, left with a slight headache, he nodded to the man. Who starred at him with wide eyes, Klein rolled his eyes and gestured for the man to speak.
"Visitor." The man said simply,
"Take me." Replied Thomas in Afrikaans, much to the man's shock. The young man chuckled at his subordinate's reaction as the man hesitantly turned and led him out of the room. God knows why he didn't figure out do that sooner, probably would have helped with resolving the problem with the religious guy in a lot more reserved manner. He was tired of having to rely on broken English and a few barely knowledgeable translators to communicate. But his time was better spent elsewhere, either training in the more physical uses of Convexity or endlessly going over the plans that he and his allies were attempting to set in motion, he barely had enough time for eating with all the things he had going on.
He looked around at the complex he had made for himself as they walked across the rusty catwalk that led to the dilapidated office space that was his room, the place was an old, ramshackle warehouse somewhere in central Africa that he took from a senile old warlord. It wasn't ideal for his purposes, but he had to make do with what he had at the moment, if he was to take Warfang it would have to be with skill and strategy, as well as brute force, any slip up in the defense and the dragons were likely to exploit that any way they could. He may have a technological edge when it came to these mercs, but they wouldn't make up the bulk of his forces and from what he heard Warfang's defenses had been updated since Malefor's last assault on it. They would also have the advantage of air superiority, and, of course the fact that every dragon was covered head-to-toe in natural armor and even a couple of them could probably barbeque, freeze, crush, zap, melt, eviscerate and generally slaughter an entire third of the people in the warehouse in less than a minute, he couldn't risk building too much of an army on Earth either, he already had almost every national security agency in the world looking for him after what he had done so far, any slip up on his part could bring an international task force down on his head. Of course, he had contacts in almost all of those agencies, people that the boss had struck a deal with, or influenced. The dragon had a way with people, and humans as a whole are apparently pretty easy to corrupt once one learns the proper uses of aether and speech. As a result, Klien had a rather large share in several corporations, he had the loyalty of multiple politicians and he would have all the intel, weapons and equipment he would need when it came to facing the world's militaries. But subtlety was critical, and regardless of his resources he could be crushed immediately if he was discovered before all of the pieces fell into place, and if the world united against him he wouldn't stand a chance, so, for now, he hid, only making as much as an impact on the world as needed.
Still, his forces were growing steadily, and he had already made contact with various terrorist cells and mercenary companies across the globe, if he could get enough of them to join up, he would have enough human troops to both storm Warfang and launch a terror campaign on Earth. And from what the boss had told him he had more than enough shadow apes, among other minions, to bolster his forces back on Artisan, or at least, that was what he was calling the planet. For some reason, the races of the planet had no other name for their world than 'the dragon realms.' But that name really only applied to the part of the world that the dragons ruled over, they had yet to explore much else of their home planet. However, Malefor had, and from Klien had seen he had his work cut out for him when it came to that world.
They strode down from the catwalk and onto the main floor of the building, where various mercenaries stood guard, trained and maintained various kinds of hardware. Most of these Mercs only had small arms and light military vehicles, but that would be more than enough in the way of firepower for right now. He would save the big guns for when the majority of the fighting began.
The man led him outside of the warehouse and into the night air, the place looked almost deserted from the outside, save for a few guards posted to watch the entrances. The mercenary led him over to an adjacent warehouse, becoming increasingly tense as they approached the entrance to the building, where a pale-faced guard stood by the door, the two exchange a few words in Afrikaans before he swung the door open and aimed his weapon into the doorway, the other merc doing the same.
"Oh," remarked Thomas, "That kind of visitor... Wait," he turned to the man who had led him here "how would any of you know anything came through? None of you ever go in. "
"Those things grabbed Webber," replied the man, his voice shaking as his eyes darted from him to the door. " Carved your name into his chest, Mary, mother of Jesus, what even are they?"
"Under my control, and if you want to keep all of your extremities I suggest you keep your distance and don't provoke them." Thomas fixed the man with a grin, "Or don't, it keeps them entertained."
It only made sense, this was where he kept the shadow apes he brought to Earth, and it also happened to be the location of the only stable portal between Earth and Artisan, the Mercenaries had seen the Apes in action when Thomas had sic'ed them on a small-time militia who tried to take the compound, they butchered most of the attackers in broad daylight while he and his men watched, but then they dragged a couple off into the darkness of the warehouse, the screams that followed made the mercs more than wary of the creatures neighboring them.
Klein snorted and strode into the darkness without a second thought, the guards slamming the door shut behind him almost immediately. Almost as if on cue the two men began chatting away as if he wasn't still standing directly behind the door. To be fair the door was supposed to be solid steel, but he had more than a few of senses supercharged by aether.
"God, that kid is f**ked up." said the one who had led him here, Thomas vaguely remembered his name to be "Holland" or something like that.
"You don't have to tell me." Replied the other, Thomas wasn't sure of his name. " How much do you want to bet he won't walk out of there alive?"
"Not f***ing much, I'm not sure he's even human."
"You kidding me? Without those freaks behind him he hasn't got s**t, we could put a round in his head and call it a day without so much as a second thought." Thomas tensed.
"You haven't seen what I have man," Holland replied, "you weren't there at the compound when General Afolabi decided to reject Klein's 'offer.' One second he was there, with five guns on him and the f**king idiot screaming in his face about how 'he was going to teach him respect' and the next he's holding the General's head by the hair and every one of us is on the floor. God, I still have the scars from that knife of his.
The two of them remained silent for a few more moments, almost to the point where Klein was about to leave when Holland spoke up once more.
"I have to get the f**k out of here."
"How the hell would you do that? You saw what happened to the last guy who tried to desert, those shadow things ran him down like it was nothing!"
"I don't know, look, those things are tough as hell but they aren't invincible, when they grabbed Webber I took a shot and hit one in the head and it dropped."
"Are you insane?! Do you remember what they did to the last one who shot at them!?"
"Something I don't intend on being around for, look, the way I see it, we either stay here and hope we live through whatever f**ked-up events that are currently underway, or we snag one of the trucks, drive like hell and kill any of those things that try to come after us."
The two remained silent for a few moments longer before Holland's partner spoke up;
"When?"
Holland took a few moments to reply but eventually responded. "Five days from now, I've scrounged up enough supplies to last us a week out there, hopefully we make it to civilization before then."
The two men continued to chat about their soon-to-be escape attempt, all the while Thomas listened to them before finally tearing his attention away from the two deserters.
"Right, might need to have a talk about 'loyalty' after this, " he muttered, looking back at the door ruefully. Fear tactics weren't going to work much longer, he needed to find a way to earn the loyalty of these men if he was going to succeed. That meant he was going to have to make good on his promises of a reward soon.
The young man strode forward without a second thought, easily navigating the dark interior of the room without hesitation as dozens of green orbs tracked him from the shadows, almost all of the building's lights had been torn out, as the apes liked it that way, and the only source of light happened to be the painfully bright glowing of the portal between the two worlds. It had been the first self-sustaining one he had ever managed to create, and it had left him comatose for two days afterward.
In the middle of the empty space, several corpses lay strewn about, many of them bearing signs of torture, some had their eyes gouged out, others missing limbs and...other parts, and a select few seemed to have had their skeletons removed. He recognized the bodies of the rival militia that the apes had gotten a hold of, but he also saw a few of his own mercs and militia among the dead. What disturbed him the most was that the other bodies seemed to be civilians from the surrounding villages, normally he wouldn't care much about something like that, but these dead civilians meant that the apes had drug the civilians here from a village before they killed them, if anyone had seen the apes then there could be stories, rumors, gossip, or even an escaped civilian, things that could get out of hand and bring a horde of armed townspeople, or worse, a UN investigator to the Warehouse. He would have to see to it that these monsters' sadistic tendencies were kept in check before it became a problem. But that was a problem for another hour or so, right now he had a guest to greet.
The portal writhed with arcane power as it's creator approached it, wisps of energy shooting out into the darkness of the warehouse and illuminating the shapes of the shadow apes in the building's rafters. When the portal acted like this, it meant something was coming through on the other side. Something already had come through, this was someone else….
A bolt of aether-laden energy lanced out of the portal without warning, impacting the roof and creating a semi truck-sized hole in it and sending the pieces that weren't vaporized flying. The sudden light and noise sent the shadow apes into a frenzy, and the sounds of shrieking and howling filled the air, echoing off the walls off the building like screams in the head of a mad man.
That, however, was new.
Two more bolts exploded out of the portal, one arcing out at him while another into the rafters where two shadow apes sat hooting and roaring,
"F**K!"
Thomas threw himself to the side, his reflexes just barely able to save him from the bolt of energy which missed its mark by mere inches before flying off in the direction of the door, a half-second later he hears an explosion and a distant cry of pain, probably one of the guards. Normally he would laugh at that…. Unfortunately, the portal was currently trying to kill him at the moment.
"S**t, S**t,S**t" he chanted the word over and over as he held a hand up, a purple beam appearing out of his palm and blending with the portal as he strained to stabilize the portal, if this thing got out of control he had no idea what the consequences would be, but he had a feeling it would result in a crater where the warehouse once stood.
The energy swirled and churned, trying to break free of the proverbial leash Thomas had placed on it as he scrambled to sap the energy it was generating until whatever was trying to come through finally did. Suddenly the portal flashed and something stepped through, what it was Thomas wasn't sure, but when it did the portal finally calmed down. The energy that swirled and churned around the portal slowly returned to normal.
"Phew!" Thomas whistled, "that was almost ba-"
"THOOM!"
"FUUUUUUUU-"
A huge wave of force pushed out from the portal, sending Thomas flying back through the air and landing roughly on the ground. Directly in front of his first guest,
"On the ground before me already human?"
Thomas looked up and was met with the massive shape of an ape, not one of the shadow apes, but rather an actual, live one, though by the smell he was giving off he was just barely. This was the first ape from Artisan he had ever seen up close, though the boss had shown him some basic images in one of their meetings this one was clearly one of the bigger examples, probably the biggest one there was considering who he was.
Gaul.
The former 'king' of the apes, he fit the profile, big, purple fur, scars covered in various blemishes and scars, Viking helmet, two big, green swords mounted on his back. Apparently brought back from the dead, how exactly Thomas had no idea, but here he was, in all of his big, rank, glory.
"King Gaul." Thomas got to his feet as the ape eyed him with disdain, "Or I suppose…." he chuckled and made a show of looking at what remained of the would-be king's race. "Just Gaul?"
"You mistake me for someone who holds remorse for their actions." the ape growled, stomping past Thomas with an uninterested expression on his baboon-like face. "My race was nothing more to me than a means to an end. If they had the chance, any one of them would have gladly stabbed me in the back and assumed my role as king."
"Still seems to me that I'm more of a king than you are at this point." Observed Thomas, putting on a cocky grin.
"A king to a race of braindead beasts, in the few moments I have known you I can say with confidence that is fitting."
Thomas scowled, this was already going south. "You know, this isn't the proper way to treat your new overlord."
Gaul turned on him. "My loyalty is to Malefor! Not to some arrogant child!" he snarled. "We are allies by mutual interest and nothing more!"
"And how long do you think he will be around for?" Thomas said in response. " I am Malefor's heir, it won't be much longer until you take orders from me."
"Over my corpse!" Raged Gaul, grabbing the hilt of one of his swords. Thomas eyed it and a grin spread over his face. He opened his hand, a ball of pure aether forming in it as he shoved his hand into his pocket, flipping open the knife inside and gripping it tightly.
"Really Gaul? You're gonna fight me? What? Is this some sort of Machismo thing? Gotta protect your pride or some s**t? If I recall correctly, the last time you fought a convexity user you lost, from what I heard you were pretty broken up about it."
Gaul roared, drawing one of his blades and swinging overhead and down on Thomas in a single motion, Thomas whipped the knife out and met the blade with his own, the small blade just barely holding out against the massive sword. He slammed his aether-laden hand into the side of the blade sending it flying to the left, Gaul attempted to draw his other blade but found Thomas' knife at his throat.
"Ha! Ha! Oh, I do love it when monkeys fight!" A shrill female voice echoed throughout the empty warehouse.
Immediately the Shadow apes in the rafters went into a frenzy, leaping and swinging around towards a single figure. Shortly afterward a shadow ape dropped, it's body missing a head. Seconds later another one dropped, also headless. Thomas removed his knife from Gaul's throat, giving him a warning look, Gaul returned the look with his own fury-filled gaze but sheathed his blades as more and more corpses began to fall. All the while the same-piercing laughter rang out through the warehouse, sounding almost childlike.
Slowly but surely the bodies changed from being simply headless to missing limbs and sporting various cuts and slashes across their bones.
"What horror did you release from that portal, boy?" Gaul looked up into the rafters with an unimpressed scowl, his eyes scanning the rafters for anything telling of what creature could kill so many shadow apes.
Thomas sighed, "Our next guest."
Thomas reached out immediately, ordering the monsters to stop attacking, normally the creatures would stop immediately, their wills tied to his own. But this time, they resisted, he felt their anger, their rage, their absolute need to kill the creature that occupied the rafters above them, he reached out to one of them in particular, seeing through its eyes as he pulled harder and harder on the magical reins that controlled them. He found the ape closest to the creature and used it vision to lay eyes on a…
"CRK!"
"F**K!"
The connection ended abruptly and violently as something impaled the shadow ape through the head. Not harming Thomas but definitely scaring the hell out of him, the same girlish laughter assaulted the other two occupants' ears once more. The shadow ape killed dropped from the rafters, with an icicle through its skull.
"There is only one kind of creature capable of such magic." Growled Gaul, drawing both his blades and taking a more combative stance.
A shape dropped from the top of the building, landing catlike onto the ground and flaring its wings out in a very flaunty manner. Giggling as her pure white scales reflected the light of the portal giving them a snow-like appearance.
"Dragon!" Gaul swore and gripped his blades. Ready to attack once more, Thomas stepped between the two, ready to stop any unwanted violence.
"Etrika, the White Witch and current ruler of Dante's Freezer."
From the information the boss had given him, she was the daughter of a noble in Warfang before the city and the dragon race fell into decline after the war with the apes. When Malefor was ultimately defeated for the second time. She reappeared outside of Warfang a few months after the dark lord's supposed 'death' apparently she moved up rapidly in the social structure of Warfang rather rapidly, and her skill in regards to her element were nigh-unmatched, allowing her to receive an invitation to be inducted into the Guardians, the recently reformed order of warrior-monk dragons that served as both scholars responsible for teaching young and an elite fighting force. To an outside observer, she seemed nothing more than a dedicated young dragon, if a little spoiled and childlike despite her station.
However, it appeared her true goals were a great deal more sinister, her actual goal was Cynder, one of the two saviors and mate to the purple dragon Spyro. Etrika appeared to have an obsession with the purple dragon. Seeing herself as the perfect mate, she had attained her position in order to get as close to the purple dragon as possible. So, the first chance she got, she attempted to remove Cynder from the picture. Thomas had seen enough anime to know what happened from there, first, it was through sabotage, then through subtle means of assassination such as poisoning or the 'accidental' mishap when she was around. Until finally she was discovered after sneaking into the saviors' home and attempting to murder Cynder directly. Unfortunately for her, Spyro himself defeated her. Evidently breaking her heart, and well, she was already pretty unhinged so anyone could figure out what came next. Her obsession with becoming Spyro's mate became an obsession to make sure he would never be with anyone else, and the best way to do that would be to kill him. Of course, as talented as she was she could never best him. So, about a week before her execution, she escaped Warfang, leaving several frozen and lacerated bodies in her wake, earning her the title of 'white witch. She appeared two years later in that frozen wasteland of a fortress.
Dante's Freezer, yet another connection between Earth and Artisan a parallel to the figurative 'Dante's Inferno." Though it was probably about as close to the ninth circle of hell as it gets. The island happened to be the former home of the Trolls, a proud warrior race that was believed to have ruled a great deal of the dragon realms in ancient times, now? It was a frozen wasteland-fortress, covered in crumbling fortifications and populated by hordes of undead trolls. Not even Malefor seemed to know how the nation fell, or why the trolls that remain are nothing more than an army of belligerent, shambling husks. When Cynder was still under Malefor's influence, she used the island as a means to contain the last remaining Guardian under the element of electricity, Volteer, somehow forcing the former king of the trolls to become his jailor. Despite this, the apes and the trolls struggled for control over the island before Malefor's return.
After the Apes were rendered almost extinct, the undead hordes regained control of the island. That was before Etrika arrived, the boss still had no idea how she did it, but Etrika seemed to have gained control over the trolls. She has since rebuilt the crumbling fortifications and somehow increased the number of undead trolls on the island, and seemed to be preparing the entire island for war. Most likely to attack the Dragon Realms and get her revenge, unfortunately for Warfang, they have no means to ascertain any information outside of their own kingdom save for sending scouts to observe the area, but between reconstruction efforts and the fact that the last dragons to set foot there were the Volteer and purple dragon himself, none of the dragons have any reason, or want to travel to the frozen island. As far as they know, the island hasn't changed at all since Spyro's visit. However, the boss happened to have eyes almost everywhere, and through Thomas' spies in Warfang, he was able to learn of Etrika and found her and her armies.
She was cunning, deadly, and had the resources to both arm his non-human soldiers and bolster his forces with her own. But, she had barely any real combat experience, and everything she knew of war came out of books. Not to mention she wasn't mentally sound and appeared to have no other motivation than her own personal gain. Still, her knowledge of Warfang and the ice element would be pivotal in both his own training and the war that would soon follow.
"A pleasure," said the dragoness giving the two a razor-toothed grin. "Especially at a distance in your case, ape."
"You called a dragon to this meeting!?" Gaul roared, staring accusingly at the human and glowering at him.
"What I did was follow Malefor's orders, you should do the same if you want to remain alive for the foreseeable future," replied the young man, not even flinching at the massive creature's gaze. Gaul cooled his fury somewhat at the mention of his master's name. The ape sheathed his blades once more and returned his face to a more neutral, unfeeling expression, which regarded the two of them as if they were nothing more than passing dust in the wind.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did my presence insult the would-be king?" Etrika's smug voice called from where she stood, her posture proud and no small amount of smugness radiating from the expression on her face. She was more graceful than the other dragons he had seen thus far. Her head lacking the angular structure that most of her kind, the only real part about her that was about as smooth as snow was her horns, which curved out of her head in a low arc on either side of her head.
"Know this, reptile,"Gaul regarded the dragon with an uninterested expression," the only reason I have not removed your head from your shoulders as you had these creatures." He kicked one of the shadow-apes' bodies."Is the fact that the master has a use for you."
"The reason why I am still alive, ape, is because your 'master' has finally sought allies outside of his realm of influence. He has realized that his goals cannot be reached through his own power alone." Etrika maintained a curt smile as she approached, "And even if this wasn't so…."
Etrika opened her claw, a small whirlwind of icy water vapor swirling around within her palm before solidifying into a dagger, which she danced between he claws with as almost as dexterity as a human hand. A playful smile evident on her face as she did so.
"I believe you would find a rather painful ordeal in attempting to harm me."
"Enough." Thomas looked between the two with a bored expression, "We can waste time trying to kill each other when we've accomplished our goals. Speaking of which, let's get down to it, shall we?"
Thomas looked to Etrika " I'm guessing by that whole 'menacing speech' and the fact that you've decided to show up you've accepted our offer?"
"No." Etrika looked at the boy, her expression holding the same mirthful smile, " I have come to hear out the proposal from the creature who claims to be Malefor's heir personally, I would see what power you possess and what your plan is regarding the fall of the dominion of the dragon realms."
Thomas raised his eyebrow, this was unexpected, but not surprising,
"Fair enough." Thomas shrugged and closed his knife, shoving it into his pocket and keeping his hands in both pockets. "I suppose now that everyone I expected to show is here we might as well begin. I assume by now you must be wondering where you are, this is Earth, my home planet. Please, forgive the mess." He gestured to the large number of human corpses on the ground.
Etrika's eyes widened considerably. Gaul's did the same, though only slightly.
"T-then…" Etrika looked around her, suddenly aware of her alien surroundings.
"I am not of your planet." Thomas said calmly, "to you, I am an alien, as you are to me. I have brought you both here because not only does Malefor want the Dragon realms crushed, he wants both my and your worlds subjugated under his power, however, due to his defeat three years ago, his power is waning, he will not live much longer and wishes to see those who have put him in this state suffer and die. In return for completing this task, he will reward me with what remains of his power and rule over my planet, should you choose to join us, you will be rewarded with territory on your planet, as well as much power as you want. Gaul, despite his apathy towards his race, will see his people revived and his position as king of the apes restored, in addition to a large amount of power and territory."
Etrika's pupils dilated as she took in this information, silently pondering the information as she nodded silently.
"Due to the resources at your disposal, we wish to use Dante's freezer as a factory and fortress to supply and arm the soldiers we have on your planet."
"Will any of your kind be taking part in this war?" Asked Etrika, her expression not dissimilar from that of a politician negotiating with other countries' representatives.
"As a matter of fact they will, I have acquired several mercenaries."
"Forgive my saying so…" Etrika cut back in, "But in a fight against dragons, from what I see, looking at you, a human would not do much against a dragon, maybe against the other races in Warfang, but a dragon could kill something of your stature in moments."
"Right you are." Replied Klein "If you were to look at many of the natural predators here on Earth, you would say the same thing. Human power does not rely on natural weaponry or defense mechanisms. Instead, we have grown to power through the use of technology."
"Technology?" Repeated Etrika skeptically.
"Yep," the young man quickly began walking back to where he came in, seeing the part of the building was reduced to rubble by the stray bolt of energy from the portal. In the debris, he saw Holland, barely conscious and bone sticking out of his left leg. He relieved the man of his rifle and picked the man up, dragging him by his Kevlar vest as he groaned in pain.
"This man saw fit to conspire with another member of my little army to desert his post," Said Thomas, his tone upbeat as he dragged the man along behind him. "So, I suppose I should kill two birds with one stone here."
He set the man roughly down against a support beam, causing him to groan as he took stock of his surroundings and settled his gaze on Gaul and Etrika.
"What the f**k!" The man's eyes went wide as he suddenly began trying to get to his feet.
"Oh, quiet you." Thomas gave him a kick in the ribs, effectively knocking the wind out of the man.
"Anyways, this." He held the rifle up for both of them to see. "Is what my kind call a gun, a weapon capable of firing small projectiles faster, farther, and harder than any bow could ever shoot. Think of it as a miniaturized cannon."
Thomas aimed the rifle at Holland, the man's eyes went wide once again and he held a hand up.
"Don't you f**king do it Klien…..please,"
Thomas grinned.
"Observe."
He fired the weapon on full auto, cutting the man down as the 5.56 ammunition tore his body apart. Much to the astonishment of his audience.
"Fascinating!" Etrika closed the distance between her and the boy, looking over the weapon with fervorous curiosity. Gaul stayed where he was, observing Holland's corpse with reserved astonishment.
"This runs off the same kind of powder as the dynamite your apes once used, Gaul."
"Powerful." The ape commented neutrally.
"This is just what a standard rank and file soldier carries on my world. There are worse, far worse weapons that we have created. Due to this, it will be a great deal harder to conquer Earth than it will be your planet."
The two leaders nodded, he had their attention now. "So, we take your planet first, let it be a staging area for the invasion of Earth."
"And how do you plan on taking this world?" Etrika gave Thomas a look of curiosity.
"I'll burn that bridge when we come to it." Replied Thomas, "For now, I believe I have provided all the information you should need to make a decision. Gaul is already on board, as he is loyal to Malefor. All we need is your answer."
Etrika stepped away from Klien, deep in thought as she weighed her options.
"Very well." Etrika's playful smile returned to her face. "Dante's Freezer is yours…"
Thomas fist-pumped internally.
"Under one condition."
"Crap," he thought.
"I want Spyro," Etrika said, her eyes gleaming with cold malice. "Alive, break him, torture him, cut his legs and wings off and mount them on your wall, but he will be given to me alive."
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."Muttered Thomas. "Alright, I'll see what I can do." He held his hand out. "We have an agreement then?"
Etrika observed the outstretched hand and slowly reached her claw out, grasping his hand in her talons.
"Ow, ow, f**k, ow." Thomas struggled not to rip his hand out of her grasp, he shook the claw and slowly let go, revealing three deep wounds where the claws punctured the flesh. He hid the wound by clasping his hands behind his back.
"Excellent!" He said, putting on a friendly mood, "I would give you both a tour of the base, but my people haven't seen either of your kind before and would likely shoot you, soooooo."
He gestured to the portal. "If step on back into that portal it'll take you back to your Freezer."
Etrika looked to the portal and back to Thomas. "You won't be coming?"
"Unfortunately no, I've got a few more matters to settle here before my forces are ready, so until then you will be dealing with Gaul for the foreseeable future."
Etrika gave Thomas a weird look before looking over to the ape and giving him a scowl. WHich he returned.
"Fine." She pouted, "But I want to see more of you and your kind are capable of, Sir….?"
"Klein, Thomas Klein"
"Very well, Sir Klein." Etrika made her way to the portal, walking with a sort of regal elegance back to the portal. Just before she entered she looked back and gave Thomas another sharp-toothed grin. "I look forward to working with you in the future."
The White Witch stepped through the portal and in a burst of light disappeared.
"I didn't take you for a merchant, boy." Gaul strode past him towards the portal.
"What do you mean?"
"You seemed to sell the reptile on what she will receive, and yet did not warn her of the danger we face."
"What?" What danger? I showed you both the guns!"
"And you did not see fit to tell her of the other heir? Or the danger to our cause that lies beyond the dragon realms?!"
"They aren't important at the moment."
"How long will it be until they are important?"
"The dragons are a prideful race, Gaul, they would rather perish in a blaze of glory than ask for assistance, and besides, once I get the fourth member of our little league on board, we'll be able to crush the tree-huggers no problem."
"And the other heir?"
"He's my problem. One that will be dealt with soon enough."
"I saw the Purple Dragon in the same light as you saw him, human, if you don't crush him now he will become a thorn in your side you will never remove."
"Yeah, yeah, we'll see about that." Replied Thomas.
"Arrogance will be the death of you, Thomas Klein." Gaul turned and stomped to the portal. "And when you fail the master and the other human is still alive, it will be me who is left standing, and I will finish what you started."
Gaul disappeared in the portal leaving Thomas alone with his thoughts. He strode out of the building over the rubble that was the entrance, noticing a man sitting just outside of the building, clutching his rifle to his chest with pale hands and a pale face. It was the other guard, the one Holland had been speaking with. He approached the man, resting his foot on a pile of rubble and leaning on his knee.
"You see all that?" He asked the merc. The man nodded slowly.
"Then I take it you know what happens to people who desert?"
Another nod.
"Great!" Thomas stood up, grabbed the man by his vest-straps and set him on his feet.
"What's your name buddy?"
"Alake." The man stammered
"Well then, Alake, walk with me."
Thomas strode back into the main building with Alake following close behind.
"Let's talk promotion."
Author's note:
Hooo, boy. That is a long chapter right there.
There is a large amount of foreshadowing here, I hope I did it the right way, as well as the introduction of two new villains. (Insert Billie Eilish Song here.) The whole OC thing was a pain to figure out, (Yandere as hell.) but she has a lot more to her than what's been explained here. I'm happy to see people are liking Hiraeth, I don't have any intention of stopping the story until its done, but if I do I'll post it on my page or something. As always, criticism is appreciated and have yourself a wonderful day.
Until the next chapter.
