Chapter 18 - The Corrupted

A lazy gold shaded eye managed to flutter open, fighting against the heaviness of slumber that had kept it closed for so long.

It was difficult sometimes, the calming restful embrace of sleep was much more appealing to him than being awake, that being said it wasn't like he had much choice in the matter.

His vision was becoming brighter even through closed eyes. The world had always been black and white, thousands of years with nothing but grey in the middle, however…

Somewhere in the vast and distant horizon… There was colour, a massive explosion of gold that filled his sight.

"Boorish." The small purple skinned Dragon lifted his slender neck with minimal effort, not enjoying the rude awakening he was experiencing. He tried to fight off a sickly cough but soon gave in, releasing a small black vapour from his mouth as he did so.

His fire had long since left his body, instead being replaced by the pure veins of corruption that had infiltrated his mind and soul for years past.

He managed to summon the strength to stand up and stretch his limbs out, managing to give a slight sigh of contented relief. He slowly strolled to the edge of his mountain plateau where he'd burrowed into his cave.

It was there that he used to sit and proudly watch over the lands. That glaringly bright pillar of gold had only gotten brighter in the minutes that he'd been awake, watching it with caution.

Slow footsteps approached him. Normally he'd be on high alert if not for the fact that he knew who it was.

"So you sensed it too, huh?" A feminine voice asked. The owner of the voice strolled up and placed a human arm against his resting form, leaning against him lazily.

"How could I not? It's so bright, what is it?" He asked in response, glaring at the pillar of immense light.

The woman huffed slightly, running a hand through her gravity defying purple hair. Her skin was the same shade but had thick scaley plates adorning every angle of her human curves. She had bright golden eyes peering out from the amethyst hue of her skin. It was a complete flip from her true form as her skin was much closer in shade to that of shimmering emeralds, much like the Defiler's own form.

"THAT is the one they call the Defiler. He's the other Hunter cursed by the box, it looks like he's something else though…" She mused, looking at the pillar of light that was in her vision as well as his.

"Isn't it a bit gaudy to be giving off that much light? If the mortals didn't know about us before then they certainly do now." He gave off a light chuckle.

"No, use your brain Krell, that's not an actual pillar of light, it's… It FEELS like pure power." She corrected him, leaning against her arm ever so slightly as she did.

"It still looks gaudy and stupid." The Dragon huffed, laying down again and relaxing his head into his outstretched arms, never taking his eyes off of the show of light past the horizon.

"I've been awake quite a bit longer than you, I went to the past couple of gatherings at the Sanctuary. I've met the first Dragon Hunter, a proud little ex-Human called Kareah, she came to us with a plan to destroy the corruption in us all to allow the younger generations to flourish without the corruption having any chance to return." The woman explained.

"I bet that went down well." Krell snorted sarcastically. He wasn't fond of the other Dragons by any means but he especially didn't like uppity Humans.

"Not tremendously. Azyat tried to challenge her but got a firm fist to the face, taking him down a peg. Hilariously the same thing happened when this guy came to the Sanctuary." She laughed at the memory.

"And what is his story?" Krell asked, looking on at the pillar of divine light becoming more intense as time went on.

"He USED to be a Demi-God before he was cursed into one of us. Looking at that, I'd say he was lying. He is completely a God… Holy shit, he's a Dragon God." She said out loud, the amazement in her face coming in fast with the realization that he had already risen above and beyond them.

"You can't be serious, Ivorous, that would mean that light is his unbound power." Krell replied, looking up in wonder. It was an incredible amount for them to be able to see that light from so far away.

"I can't think of another explanation for it, can you?" She asked, tilting her head sideways as if that was going to help her to analyse the scene before her better.

"No, it would make sense that a Dragon God would be the only visible light in my world of grey." Krell snarled, resting his head down once again.

As if on cue the light began to rescind slightly before it disappeared, only a faint hue on the horizon was still visible in its place.

"I never told you what's been happening." Ivorous carried on, "He came to Sanctuary, wearing the souls of the fallen around his neck. Azyat of course was an ass hat about it and received a knee to the sternum so hard that it humbled him." Ivorous explained, her face turned into one of slight sadness, one that hadn't gone unnoticed by her counterpart.

"You mentioned the souls of the fallen?" He asked, prompting the Dragon by his side to expand upon that.

"Yeah, so I did… He's been branded as the Defiler, though so far I can't see why. Scared younger Dragons I suppose. HIS plan is to rid our world of this sickness, and to bring about the rebirth of our world through a means that he hasn't been able to tell us, otherwise the chances of success diminish. His plan still involves our downfall, but he still takes our souls with him, not that he had a chance otherwise since Icewyre fused his pendant within the boy's heart." Ivorous told him.

"That's quite a commitment." Krell commented accompanied by a slight yawn.

"Yeah, it is, but I believed him. In that moment where he marched into the Sanctuary and faced Ddraig I sensed nothing but truth. Those souls live within him now…" She looked almost mournful as her head bowed.

"Who has fallen to the boy?" Krell asked, peering a the golden hue that gave colour to his grey world.

"First it was Mirroth. He fought her tooth and claw when he was newly reborn. Then it was Azazel only days ago, they fought on even terms in the sky, the greater of the two coming out alive, and finally, only hours ago if my instincts are anything to go by, Azyat went to hunt him down after feeling humiliated… The Hellfire Dragon is dead, all three of their souls now live within him." She spoke softly, not wanting to really dwell on it. She believed in his plan, she really did, but she also felt the loss of the other Ancient Dragons.

She was after all the emotional side of their soul whilst Krell was the cold, ruthless side. They had once been a single being, one Dragon, before the corruption ruptured their soul, splitting them into two identities, Krell and Ivorous, the twin Dragons as they'd been known. The Corruption Dragon, and the Poison Dragon.

"And another one will likely soon follow. Think about it logically, if he's had to release himself to his fullest capacity then he's likely fighting what you'd think would be a seemingly insurmountable challenge." Krell prompted, casually glancing down at the human for of his other side.

"Leviathan…" She whispered slowly. "I didn't feel Leviathan awaken, could it really be the case?" She queried, looking at Krell for an answer.

"Well, it's either Leviathan or Lavalleri, and if it was the latter then the fight would already be over." Krell grunted. "Let this one play out however it does, we'll soon find out if the boy stays true to his word or whether it ceases to matter altogether. I'm going back to sleep, wake me up when we have something important to do." The grouchy Dragon barked, slinking his way back into the cave.

"I have a feeling that soon enough we'll be the next names on his list… Unless Lavalleri finds him first, then he's screwed." Ivorous chuckled to herself before walking away from the edge of the plateau.

Thousands of miles away from the twin Dragons were twin Gods that were completely stuck for what to do next.

There they were, on a mountain top sitting at the rocky precipice of the mouth of a waterfall, casually launching pebbles down the side of the mountain as they spoke.

"There must be more to it." Apollo sighed, breaking into a new train of thought.

"There isn't." Artemis replied with a heavy sigh. She knew how to track and hunt all manor of beasts and monsters but Ancient Dragons were something else, something that she wouldn't have gone out of her way to hunt in any regard, but even more so for the fact that these two Dragons were dormant, she had no real way of determining where she should begin.

"I mean, there's always the long way. We just go to each and every mountain peak and see if we can find a couple of snoozing Dragons." Apollo offered with a slight shrug as he saw the defeated look of response on his sister's face.

"That could take us years and I need this to be done now. I didn't even get an answer from that overgrown lizard, he just sent me on another mission!" Artemis sighed in defeat.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, I haven't ever had to track down some dormant Dragons." Apollo shrugged, giving up as he too sat down on the rocks only a few feet away from Artemis. In his mind that was the end of the road for him, if Artemis was going to chase this up on her own then chances were that she'd have more success doing it without him.

"Perhaps you'll be in luck and one WON'T be asleep?" A feminine voice called out to them. They were both immediately on high alert, only tacking a fraction of a second to have fully loaded bows strung and pointed at the origin of the voice.

On the rocks sat only a few feet away from them was a beautiful naked woman, skin the same dull grey as the rocks beneath them. She had pure black eyes with shining white iris' in the centre, it was a sight to behold. She had long silvery hair that flowed down her back almost contrasting the smooth dullness in tones to her skin.

"And who might you be?" Artemis asked through narrowed eyes. How the Hades had someone snuck up on not only herself but Apollo as well? Disregarding Percy and a few specific others, they alone were the greatest hunters in their world, there was no chance someone could just sneak up on them.

"You're fairly slow for a Goddess." The woman sighed slightly, "My name is Erymanth, I was summoned by Ddraig to take you to the place where myself and Ami are. He's got a fairly grand plan for you and the Defiler." Erymanth gave off a lazy smile. It looked like she was still waking up which would have made sense if Ddraig had forcefully brought her out of her rest.

"Watch your tone Dragon, I'm allowing a lot of leeway from your race due to Perseus' unique position but I am still a Goddess and not accustomed to being insulted." Artemis boomed as she grew in statue by a few feet and started to glow atomic silver. The pressure around them began to grow exponentially. It didn't overly bother the tired Dragon who was already sat down but Apollo on the other hand was looking fairly uncomfortable.

"Relax, I meant no disrespect." She sighed before standing up. She slowly spread her arms out and focused her energy inwards. She slowly started to look more Human with each passing second before she was fully in her alternate form.

"Sorry about that, it's a bit hard to do the transformation perfectly after thousands of years asleep. We need to talk about what happens from here on out but this trip is to be made by you and you alone, the golden boy isn't part of Ddraigs plan." Erymanth explained, glancing sideways at Apollo.

"Hey, I probably wasn't going to be much help anyway. Good luck sis." Apollo beamed with a smile that irradiated sunshine and a thumbs up before flashing away, leaving only the Goddess and the Dragon on the mountaintop.

"So let's go, you can fill me in on the way." Artemis told her, lowing her bow as she did. "Ddraig didn't actually tell me what his grand plan was, I wanted to know who Kareah was and if she was going to get in between myself and Perseus." Artemis explained as she slowly followed the stone Dragon.

"Oh boy, that's a lot to go through. It's probably better if I let Ami explain everything. You'll have to be very careful and do exactly what I tell you and when I tell you." Erymanth adopted a serious demeanor for the first time since she'd arrived.

"And why is that?" Artemis asked, wondering about the seriousness implied.

"Because the corruption runs deep within Ami, she struggles to even listen to what Ddraig has to say, I'm the only one she'll calm down for as I'm her soul bond, but… It looks like you already know how the soul bond works." The stone Dragon smirked when she saw the Goddess flush.

"Shut up and lead the way." Artemis huffed, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to hide that from the Dragons.

It did serve to bring a smile to her face though.

So she WAS marked by him.

Marked by HER Dragon.

A/N: Yo, got a lot to go through and so far I've managed to keep to my schedule, I can potentially do another chapter relatively soon but I'll probably have a few days rest after that.

Review?