Author's Note:
I hope you're all staying in and safe from the Coronavirus. I, regrettably, HAD it for weeks. It was no fun, and it really interfered in my ability to do my job AND my writing. But now that I'm feeling better, have an extra large and dramatic chapter for all of you to enjoy!
"This may be the absolute weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life."
Sakamoto had landed down upon the outskirts of Dublin Town as the sky was surprisingly bright, blue and beautiful. Nary a cloud ambled by overhead as he and the others he'd been carrying touched down amongst a large blanket of snow that covered the land all around them. It was as if a giant had spread a big, large white comforter all around them for a good 50 miles or so, but even that winter wonderland that had coated the city of Dublin Town in a layer of white along with its ramparts wasn't what surprised him or the others.
No, what surprised them was the fact that humans and monsters were outside of the town and mingling. People were glancing about at one another, humans at humans, then at monsters. Monsters at other monsters, and then at humans. There was the occasional mumble and murmur of concern, of worry, but for the most part, everyone was just plain glad to no longer be stuck indoors and to have to worry about people launching refuse and waste at one another.
Long lines had been set up as people made their way to tables, and monster and human alike were passing out various types of food. At the moment, the unmistakable Sir Grillby himself, the famous fire elemental, was pouring out alcohol at another table. Again and again he poured strong spirits into big casks and cheerily smiled or nodded at each patron he had, the many "customers" bundled up in thick clothing, or wearing distinct rags wrapped around themselves to indicate they were victims of the plague assaulting both sides.
One such victim gently pulled down the "mask" of rags he had, sipping on the spirit that Grillby had poured as a distinctly red-haired human stood nearby, arms folded over his chest as he glanced over at the fire elemental. "I hope you appreciate this, this was my best booze." He intoned, with a faintly irritated tone in his distinctly celtic voice.
"I do, I truly do." Grillby insisted. "I'm very glad we're on the same side right now, Cu Chulainn. I've grown to despise everything about the enterprise of war."
"I admit I'm not quite as eager for it as I was." Chulainn muttered softly as he looked down at the ground, and Grillby noticed his gloved fingers dug into his arms. "Oh, to go back only a month ago…"
"I see you've arrived! How wonderful! And with...more humans. How...how lovely." Garamond murmured, the taller skeleton monster sighing as he folded his arms and looked Gaster over, cringing as he saw the white-haired young human mage standing beside him who had a hand on Gaster's shoulder. He glanced at the two, and then a horrifying, shuddering feeling rose in him as the two shared a look, a very distinctive look that Garamond had only seen a few times…
And only in his mother when she had looked at his father. He remembered that look very well. Garamond cringed, shaking his head. But he said nothing, thankfully, just walking away, grumbling as Gerald in turn trotted on over to a collection of people not far away. Elisud and Prince Asgore were doing their best to treat others, despite Prince Asgore now having to wear a protective mask over his face, designed to keep him from coughing on others.
"Ohhh, you're GERALD." Prince Asgore took notice of him, monster and human alike murmuring amongst themselves as he waddled his way up to the two healers.
"And you're clearly in need of someone who can enhance and keep your magic going even longer." Gerald said with a firm nod. "No talking. Just let me do what I do best." He insisted as his eyes glittered like black coals, and his body faintly glowed. Prince Asgore looked rather disappointed, he clearly wanted to have a long and fruitful talk with Gerald, but Elisud gently patted Asgore on the back.
"It's alright. We can all talk later, when this business is all over." He said softly.
"You're quite the peach, young man!" Prince Asgore laughed as the bearded young mage smiled nervously.
Various knights were passing out blankets, sitting next to respective patients, clad in their full armor as they patted the unfortunates on the shoulders or the back. Toriel, in turn, approached the nearest one as the knight who sat by a skeleton monster who was coughing very badly. She held up her hand, a soft, glowing green balm bathing over the skeleton monster as Courier smiled up at her. "Thank you very kindly, miss, uh…?"
"Toriel, and you would be?"
"Courier." Courier said, the smaller skeleton monster sheepishly smiling as best he could beneath the mask he had to wear.
"He's in the early stages." said the knight, who had a smooth, square-like helm that was slightly jutting out, and a lot of plate armor on his chest and arms, but lacking on his legs. "I'm Iolo, madam. My friend Gawain and other knights like myself are finding it...very odd having to treat and care for monsters that were shooting arrows at us only a week or so ago."
"Still, we're making the most of it!" said a cheery-looking greek girl as she approached, Toriel smiling as Erimentha's hair flopped around her head. She and Hadiya had been letting their hair grow quite a bit, and nobody had bathed too much either, truth be told. It seemed pointless compared to the whole "just don't get infected" thing. Erimentha held up a small platter, loaded with bread, meat and wine. "I brought you two something to eat. You need to keep your strength up."
"How is Ms. Hadiya?" Iolo asked of her.
"Oh, tending to poor Solomon, our dear were-spider apparently has caught it, and it's having a very strange effect on him." Eri confessed as she shook her head back and forth. "It's very, very strange indeed."
Toriel frowned a bit, pursing her lips. "Whatever do you mean? Does it effect were-monsters differently?"
Indeed it did, as Sakamoto and Seiichi were finding out. The white-haired monster was now in his human form, but every time he sneezed...THWUMPHF. It was as if a veil passed over their eyes and in that single sneeze, Solomon was now in his spidery form. It was like reading a picture book, and flipping back and forth between two pages. "Normal", and "Were". "Normal", and "Were".
Then again, for Solomon, the "were" bit WAS normal for him, but this constant switching wasn't, "And this is murder on my sinuses!" He groaned aloud, miserably shaking his head back and forth. "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this." Hadiya sighed and patted his back as he sneezed again. THWUMPHF. "I hate being useless!"
"I know the feeling." Hadiya offered. "Would you like me to tell you some of my mother's bedtime stories? I remember some really good ones."
"Anything...cheery? Hopeful? I could really, really use that right now." Solomon quietly mumbled. "I think we all could."
"I know a few old recipes from my culture that could help." Sakamoto offered as they all gazed at the dragon as he nodded gently at them in return. "It involves making a soup from my horns. It's very unusual, but it DOES work as a cure for colds and flus, perhaps it could aid you here."
"Your horns have magical properties?" Seiichi now looked very concerned. "I imagine that a lot of people would love to tear or crush them up and sell them as cures." He murmured, Sakamoto chuckling.
"Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to pin a dragon down long enough to saw the horns off?" he inquired. "You'd be holding on one minute, and the next, he'd be fifteen times your size and munching on your legs. Believe me, it doesn't happen. We have to break them off ourselves. It's going to hurt though. A lot." He added as he cringed. "I, um...may need some very heavy alcohol to dull the pain."
"I'll get that for you." Seiichi said, racing off to where Grillby was as Solomon bowed his head.
"Bless you for that, Mr. Dragon." He intoned as Sakamoto smiled benignly back. "...ACHOO!"
THUMPHF!
"So…"
King Maecoal, meanwhile, was now sitting across from Tobias. The two had their hands in their laps as they looked across from each other at a table, humans and monsters alike glancing at each other as Tobias took hold of the cup of wine he had and sipped it softly, King Maecoal doing the same to his own. "The one and only Prince Tobias."
Tobias nodded. "Yes. And you're King Maecoal."
"Well, I have to admit, I didn't foresee you coming here." The puca monster intoned as his eyes flashed slightly.
"We thought it best to get here quickly, before a bad situation got much worse. Ideally, we want to end this peacefully."
"Sure. Of course."
"I have a feeling, though, that "ending this peacefully" may mean something much different to you than it does to us."
King Maecoal took another long, deliberate sip of his wine before slowly setting it down. "Oh, of course it does. But at the moment, I'm interested in you, boy. Do tell me...how exactly did you get to be prince? I had heard that the first king had tragically burned up in an accident at his castle."
"Well, it wasn't actually an accident, we think-" Tobias then stopped himself. He realized how stupid it would be if he openly said what was in his head, that an angry, pissed off Pyrope had set fire to the castle to get even with the king in a drunken rage, causing a lot of suffering and death. Saying that to the King of Monsters would probably be a bad idea. "It was...arson, sir. One of the subjects was unhappy with the way he treated the land and took their revenge, though we've not nailed down who exactly did it. There's not much proof and there weren't really any witnesses."
King Maecoal clucked his tongue. "Well, well, that is unfortunate. Not for you, though. I imagine you're enjoying being in charge?"
"Not really, sir." Tobias shook his head. "I'm a very simple soul, King Maecoal. Before I became prince, my only concerns were for my family, my best friend, and loving God. I probably would have ended up a scholar or something if not for the fire, and I'd be just happy with that. I had wanted to officially join my local church and maybe sing in the choir along with my friend. Simple things, sir. Being a king is anything but simple. It seems as though everyone hangs on my every word, and I don't dare truly speak my mind, or I'll end up causing some kind of big problem. I have to cherry pick things, keep stuff hidden, obfuscate so I don't offend diplomats or others I talk to."
"Myself included?" King Maecoal now looked decidedly amused by this as he folded his hands neatly on the table.
"I'll be very frank, sir...yes." Tobias said softly. "And honestly, I'm very nervous speaking to you. It isn't just that you're a king, you're like, five times my size and could probably crush my head like a grape."
"Oh, without a doubt, but that's a good thing. A healthy amount of fear and distrust is necessary for such relations." King Maecoal told him. "You should put your trust in the self-interest of your enemies, not in any kind of innate goodness, because the self-interest will win out over the latter very, very often."
"I'm very sorry to hear you say that, sir." Tobias intoned softly. "I truly am."
"We don't live in the best of all possible worlds, boy. If we did, there wouldn't be any kind of war between our kind right now, would there?" King Maecoal quietly intoned. "At any rate, you've not disappointed me, so I would call this little meeting satisfactory. You had a low bar to clear, quite a low bar at that, and you still cleared it very splendidly. Now…" He rose up, dusting himself off. "I'm going to go check on my son. I advise you to go speak to your compatriots. And I do hope we're close to finding a cure, because if I do lose my boy, I'm going to be very, very mad, Prince Tobias."
His tone got cold, and vicious. "And I know full well we can't beat the numbers you have. But I'd be perfectly happy following the path of Samson, and dying alongside as many of my enemies as I can claim if my son does die. You'd better hope he doesn't. Or I WILL crush your head like a grape."
Tobias stared resolutely back as he watched King Maecoal leave, and he felt a flutter swelling up inside his chest. A strange feeling he'd rarely felt before. A sense of...Determination. Determination to bring this whole mess to a happy ending. He too rose up, and made his way over to Toriel, clearing his throat as she looked up at him, more monsters arriving from a caravan that came from the west.
"Ms. Toriel, I have an idea. I think we need to look for people who seem to be doing better against the virus than others. Let us ask around and see who's had it and for how long, and which of them seem to be the hardiest of them all."
…
…
…
...Gaster was surprised. His mother had arrived of all people, along with quite a few DRAGONS, who were being guarded by the fiercest of mer-platoons. At the moment, Arial was speaking with Melusine, chatting it up with the green-haired mer-woman as she sat on a bench, little baby Undyne chewing on a wooden toy because she was teething. He and Leopold approached as Arial blinked in surprise at seeing him.
"I didn't know you'd be here." They said at the same time as Melusine saw Leopold quickly letting go of Gaster's hand and she chuckled a bit.
"So...when did you realize?" She asked aloud as Arial blinked in surprise.
"Realize what?" She asked as she looked at her son and the white-haired young mage.
"Oh c'mon, Arial. It's obvious. The two are clearly in love. I married a human, I know what it looks like." She said as Arial stared, absolutely gobsmacked at her son and at Leopold. "So when did you realize you two were in love with the other?"
"...it, um...it…" Leopold blushed. "The thing is, we figured it out weeks ago, and we just sort of...we had been bonding when we were training together and practicing magic, one thing just led to another. Y-You won't tell anyone else, will you?"
"...nope." Melusine said with a smile. "I don't give a damn at all." She laughed as Arial deeply sighed.
"I'm...I am going to need some time to process this, dear." She murmured as she looked away, arms folded across her chest, the skeleton monster taking in deep, long breaths. "I just...I don't know how to handle this right now, this is all...it all seems so sudden."
"I understand." Gaster said gently and nodding back in return as he gazed over at the dragons. "I do want to ask, whatever are they doing here?"
"I believe they're here to observe, for the most part." Arial confessed. "But honestly, there's something odd about it. They've not spoken to us, like, at all. They barely spoke to the people who led our caravans. I find it very strange they didn't just fly here like your Japanese dragon friend did."
Indeed, it was very strange. But the dragons were distinctly very interested in the sick, a few of them were examining some of the patients and speaking amongst themselves before approaching King Maecoal, taking him aside.
Maecoal looked absolutely shocked as he listened to what they had to say. "Tell me you jest." He told them in a low, angered voice. "I cannot seriously believe I am hearing what I am hearing. TELL me you are jesting."
"It's merely an offer." The dragon that spoke to him remarked calmly, adjusting the fancy outfit of unique metal and mail he had on. "If things continue to get worse, I advise you to take it under consideration."
"And I advise you to leave me be, I don't care if you ARE dragons, I'm not listening to such a ridiculously cruel offer." King Maecoal snapped.
"If the infection gets worse, it will arguably be far greater to save SOME of your kind...over having none. We're going to make the same argument to the humans. If they say "yes", you'll be very much at a tremendous disadvantage."
With that, the dragon left him, heading off with his compatriots to speak to Tobias, as King Maecoal glared over in their direction. Tobias, in turn, had called on the other mages to speak with him for a little meeting, to discuss how well the recovery was going.
"The good news is we seem to be able to keep this disease at bay. The symptoms have been lessened thanks to the influx of help we've gotten, and we tested out Sakamoto's horn cure. It worked incredibly well." Elisud confessed. "We were all very surprised, but the symptoms are almost totally gone. Poor Solomon is still unfortunately coughing quite a lot though, which indicates he isn't cured."
"It would seem as though you'd like some assistance, then." Tobias, Cu Chulainn, Hadiya, Erimentha, Leopold, Seiichi and Elisud all looked up at the assembled dragons as one of them spoke up, a distinctly white, regal-looking splendid specimen indeed. "Well, we'd be certainly happy to help. We've watched all of this unfold for a long, long time, and we dragons believe you're at the crossroads of destiny. Whomever wins at this point and time would become the true winner of the war between man and monster."
"So you'd be willing to let us grind your horns up for cures?"
"Oh, indeed, we're offering to do more than that. Many of the patients, alas, are not going to make it. It would be best for us to alleviate their suffering. We'll do what we can to provide for your human patients and shall end the agony of the monster patients. This will, thus, give you an undoubtable edge over the monsters and will allow you to leverage for their surrender."
Everyone at the table looked around at each other, either surprised, disgusted, or unnerved by the suggestion. "You want to...like...eat the patients is that it?" Cu Chullainn inquired. "...I'm willing to do many things, but...but the idea of killing a sick patient in their bed seems incredibly...slimy."
"Oh come now, you're not above taking prisoners and making them do humiliatingly pathetic things, Chullainn." Elisud spoke up. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand how you can be okay with taking Courier's body parts off and using them for fun, but not something like this, I…" He held his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, but this has been disturbing me for a while!"
"I'm not...proud of that." Chulainn murmured. "The difference is he's a skeleton monster and can take it. AND a prisoner of war, not a helpless patient in a sickbed who expects us to try and save them."
"We want this conflict to end peacefully. Not to...not to just give the go-ahead to let monsters be eaten by other monsters." Tobias insisted.
"...I suggest you rethink your position. Because at the moment, both of your sides are incredibly weak." The dragon intoned softly. "And, to be honest...our kind are not above just forcing you to do what we want. If you don't find a cure, we will force the issue. We weren't willing to really get involved before, but we've changed our mind watching the weakening of your forces."
"There's one problem with your plan. Instead of facing two different enemies with different goals, you'd be facing two enemies on either side with a new, same goal...beating you." Hadiya spoke up. "And there's a word for that. Surrounded."
"You may be right. I suppose it depends on whether you think either of your sides could beat us as you are right now. So...do you think you can?" The dragon quietly intoned.
They all glanced around at each other, and the dragon nonchalantly turned around.
"Think it over. Get back to us in a day or so."
They all watched as the dragons made their way far, far away from the large collection of camps and tents and tables outside Dublin Town as Erimentha scowled. "I don't trust them not to start something. Did you see his eyes? He was looking at us like we were pieces of meat. The first chance they get...they'll eat us alive." She murmured.
"Yes...I have a feeling they'd try that. We desperately need a cure. Has there been ANY progress on inspecting those who've managed to endure the virus well?" Tobias wanted to know as he scrunched up his knuckles into his hair, cringing, biting his lip as he slightly sunk down in his seat.
"I've checked them. Maybe about...three, four people haven't got most of the symptoms the others do." Seiichi admitted. "Elisud and I checked them thoroughly with Ms. Toriel, none of them have anything in common."
"Maybe the answer's in their blood." Leopold wondered aloud. "Gaster and I can examine their blood, maybe something inside that can help us fight the disease."
"Well you'd better get started, like, immediately." Tobias worried aloud. "If we don't have results, the dragons may force the issue or King Maecoal may get them to side with him out of desperation. I don't want to believe he'll do that, but I can't help fearing he MIGHT."
And so, Gaster and Leopold immediately got to work, taking blood samples from the various patients who'd been doing surprisingly well, and comparing them to the blood of "normal" infected patients. "This isn't good." Leopold murmured as Gaster began to finish up alchemical seals underneath the vials with the blood. "I can't find any difference in what's left over after I boil the blood, I've analyzed it with lenses and NOTHING...if we can't find some alchemic solution, we'll have failed all these people!"
"We're not going to fail." Gaster insisted as he furiously scribbled the final touches on the alchemical seals and began to look at the blood under the vials. "I'm going to watch for observable differences...and we're going to be up for a while, so we'd best get something to keep us awake. Get us something nice and hot."
"Of course." Leopold said, wandering off to go get hot cocoa for him and Gaster, taking notice of Sakamoto. The dragon was in his smaller form, and was currently looking very sadly down at Seiichi, covering his face with his hands, a look of deep shame and regret on his face. "Whatever is the matter?"
"Be it western or eastern, the dragons intend to make a move within less than 36 hours. And I'm sure they're going to try and take over the whole town...if not the island. It is very, VERY hard to fight a dragon. Getting to the heart is difficult, getting past the scales, and close combat's near-suicidal with something that can breath fire or use magic like I can." He murmured. "...they're going to slaughter so many people. I can't let that happen. Not to Seiichi and the others. Especially not to him. I've…"
"Do you love him?" Leopold inquired as Seiichi softly mumbled in his sleep, turning on his side.
"...I am far too old for him, and the difference in our species is too great. I know this in my head, but in my heart...I do. I do love him." Sakamoto confessed. "The more time I spent with him, the more I grew to love him. If I'd had just a few weeks more…"
He reached up, and felt the stubs where his horns had been, sighing. "I have done so much already for the sake of innocent lives. I don't know how much more I can give. I'm so...so stretched."
"You can count on those you love." Leopold offered. "And you just do what you can for them. That's what we're here for, I think. To love one another. That's not such a bad thing, is it?"
"No, no, I don't suppose it is. But…" He bit his lip. "...please find a cure. And soon."
Leopold nodded, making his way off for Mr. Grillby's table as the fire elemental began pouring him a nice hot cocoa for him and Gaster. "This will do great for the skeleton monster. It'll really tickle him down to his toes." The fire elemental chuckled. "I had no idea I was such a good mixer of drinks, but I appear to be a natural!"
But then Gaster raced on over to Leopold, his face alit with joy as he sat down next to Leopold at the table. "We lucked out. God in Heaven Leo, we've lucked out! I found something!" He said. "Grillby, get me a nice, strong wine, we're celebrating!"
"What did you find?" Leopold asked as Grillby's eyes widened but he began to pour them both a good, hearty wine, Gaster grinning toothily.
"The disease has a weakness that we can address after all. We need to approach it using this type of acid I found in the more hardy patients! The acid serves to soothe the body, especially for gastrointestinal stuff. So I used alchemy to break it down to its fundamental building blocks and I tried inserting different aspects of it into the infected patient blood and the blood became just like the other patients who weren't suffering! If we supercharge this building block with magic and administer it to the other patients…"
Leopold downed his drink in a single swig. "Let's wake the other magic users up IMMEDIATELY and get this done! No time to waste!" He insisted as Gaster quickly began pounding his wine back, Grillby chuckling at the sight as Leopold raced off to go wake up Elisud and Toriel and Asgore and the other magic-users to begin the treatment.
"Well, congratulations...Dr. Gaster." Grillby chuckled as he gave a deep bow to the skeleton monster, the youth distinctly blushing. "You may have just cured a plague."
"Dr. Gaster. Hmm. You know, truth be told, that has a nice ring to it." Gaster said with a little smile.
Come the next day, it was good news indeed. They began administering the treatment and the results were astounding. The patients were losing their cough, no longer vomiting or puking, the symptoms were falling away like scales from their eyes. People embraced, happily cheering as soft snowflakes fell from the cloudy skies above, Prince Asgore cheerily shaking hands with Tobias.
"We can't thank you enough for this." He insisted with a big, joyous smile as Toriel stood alongside Tobias and smiled warmly at the two.
"I'm just glad all of this is finally over." Tobias remarked cheerily. "Now do you think we could maybe have a PROPER talk with your father? Let's set up a meeting so we can discuss everything going forward. I want to try and bring an end to all this conflict."
"Yes, I agree." Prince Asgore said. "I think it's best for all of us if…"
He stiffened as he tilted his head to the side, listening. "Wait. Wait, do you...do you hear that? He murmured just as the clanging sound of armor rang through the air, and Melusine raced over to him, panting heavily.
"Your highness, I'm really, really sorry, but everyone has to get going, like...NOW!" She insisted. "Your father made a very, very horrible decision!"
Toriel's eyes went wide as Tobias looked up at her. "Oh no. He didn't…"
"He did." Melusine murmured sadly as a cry rang out, and people pointed up at the sky.
He had. He'd chosen to throw his lot in with-
"DRAAAAGOOOONS!"
Indeed. Dragons. And now Dublin Town was in flames. People were running away, scampering about, monsters who had been only moments ago shaking hands with humans or hugging them now bolted, humans who'd been happily chatting with monsters were racing away. Chaos and panic had turned to outright terror as leathery wings and fangy jaws, horned heads and powerful magic descended down.
Flames were unrolling like giant lapping tongues from reddish dragons, black ones belched foul acid. People caught by either were left as charred remnants, others as bleached-white bones. Other dragons favored a more direct approach and landed close to various humans to try and squash them directly.
"Get them!" Cu Chulainn held up his sword and he charged. His blade tore at dragons, and he ducked and dived, sweeping, avoiding their strikes. "Overwhelm them one at a time!" He insisted. It was like swarms of insects scurrying over a stunned small animal, and it actually worked. Stabbing spears and swords jabbed hard into draconic scales and eyes and down, down, down they went! Now it was dragon blood staining the ground.
Seiichi glanced around. Sakamoto was nowhere to be seen. Where had he-
"YIPE!" He ducked just in time to avoid a swiping bladed tail from another Asian dragon who hissed angrily, only to be piled on by Sir Gawain and Iolo. Elisud cheered as his knightly friends laid waste to the beast, slicing and slashing, Bowen's bow firing left and right, dragons shrieking as they gripped their eye sockets, blinded by well-placed arrows.
King Maecoal, in turn, looked at his son, who was giving him a horrible, baleful, disgusted look as he clung to Toriel. Melusine looked sickened as he sighed, and then whistled very sharply, a series of two, then three notes…
And another dragon descended. A big, enormous wyrm with dark blue scales that looked more at home in the sea as it's lithe body shook and quaked about, its serpentine form rearing up as it let loose a strange, hissing cry. All of the many knights and fighters who were close to the blue dragon just...stopped. Frozen stiff in place, unable to move.
"What in the hell?!" Cu Chulainn murmured as he gaped in astonishment, standing alongside Bowen the archer and Elisud. He'd leapt off a dragon he and Bowen had just finished off together and had raced to Elisud to force a smaller dragon away as Elisud had curled up in a green shield ball to protect himself. "It's as if they've frozen the very blood in their veins!"
"What kind of magic is that?" Bowen asked Elisud as Eli shook his head back and forth.
"A horrible kind I've never seen before. But maybe...maybe Cu Chulainn's right, I think they HAVE frozen their blood, look!" He pointed, and sure enough...there was faint ice crystals visible around the eye sockets of the unfortunate frozen fighters and knights, and around opened-up scars and wounds on display. "They've frozen them from the inside to keep them moving!"
"Never...ask me to do that again." The blue dragon said as it collapsed on the ground, panting heavily, some blood of its own trickling from its mouth as about a dozen smaller dragons of various types landed around it. "You have no idea what that takes out of me…"
"Not as much as we're going to take out of them!" said a smug-looking, darker-scaled Asian dragon as Elisud realized what they were about to do. They all rached towards the helpless frozen warriors and knights and began to devour them in horrible, crunching mouthfuls as the other humans and townsfolk and the mages looked on, horrified and horror-struck. Various other monsters looked away in disgust, unable to bear the sight as the dragons kept at it and finished their macabre meal, Elisud covering his eyes, thankful he didn't have to hear his comrades death screams, if nothing else...and unable to stop the tears from springing to his eyes.
And then IT descended. A dragon of white scales who slammed its body down upon the front ramparts, crashing into the gate of Dublin Town. With a single spread of its wings, the fire cascading over the town was ended, leaving just charred roofs and buildings and the remains of other victims of the dragons lying about. People stared up at it as it looked at King Maecoal and nodded firmly before turning to the assembled humans.
"I trust there won't be any more fighting against the monsters now?"
Cu Chulainn gave King Maecoal the most hateful, foul, furious look he'd ever gotten as Garamond moved to the king's side, holding his sword up. Arial shook her head, putting a hand on his shoulder as Courier cringed, looking shamefully to the side. Grillby was giving King Maecoal a disgusted look as the puca cleared his throat.
"I believe right about now...we are, at last, even after so many years. Just as the Dubliners burnt our town to the ground, so I, have at long last...done the same." King Maecoal intoned.
The dragon held its wings up, looking down at the mages before him as they all stood together. Though fearsome...it was also majestic, and strangely beautiful. It had scales like alabaster circles, each overlapping with one another and crafting a perfect crescent that looked much like a moon in midseason. It had a long, pointed jaws, its wings also massive and strong yet delicate looking, with eyes a calm almost soothing blue. It had faintly whiskerlike appendages sticking out from the top of his jaws, like a kind of softer set of spikes as it looked down at the mages and nonchalantly clawed at the ground with its sharp clawed hands.
"Now then...I see we have magic users of some considerable skill here. I would really like to thank you very much for curing the monsters." The dragon intoned. "For that, you have my gratitude. I'm sorry this is how we've repaid you, but King Maecoal accepted our offer of aid, and you didn't, and thus...this is where we are. Now…"
The humans all began to glower angrily, to look furiously at the dragon and at King Maecoal, and even at the other monsters, a deep, furious sense of betrayal rising in them.
"I know full well you want to die fighting rather than give in to overwhelming odds, but that's what's before you. Overwhelming odds. But I, Phalanx of the Grecian Plains, am merciful, and I offer you a term of surrender. You mages must submit to us. If you don't...we'll kill every single one of the other humans right in front of you. Be they old, young, man, woman or child."
"You WOULDN'T." Tobias gasped as Toriel looked horrifed, Prince Asgore wheeling around at his dad.
"Call him off, father!" He demanded, Gaster watching from afar, the skeleton monster covering his mouth as he did in some bushes while Phalanx shook his head slowly.
"We're not exactly...under your father's "control", boy. He's simply a...business associate. He doesn't command us and we don't command him. Even if he told us to stop, we wouldn't. We don't intend to let these mages go. So the question is...are you going to submit for a greater good…"
Other dragons descended down around them, looking down upon the mages, gazing intently with their almost jewel-like eyes. They twitched and shook, rustling wings and grinding claws into the dirt.
"..or are you going to allow others to suffer before we forcibly take you ourselves?" Phalanx softly inquired.
"...don't hurt anyone else." Tobias said. "Please. We'll surrender."
Chulainn growled darkly...but he sheathed his sword, a baleful, hateful look on his features. He looked more like a demon now than he ever had been before as Leopold patted Seiichi's back. Eri and Hadiya held each other's hands as Elisud quietly bowed his head.
"Good." Phalanx said. "Go on, go on. Scurry back to your little homes, repair what you can. Now then...mages? You're to come with us." He said, gesturing for them to follow him as they all had to walk along together, King Maecoal's face unreadable as the dragons walked alongside the mages, bringing them far, far away from the town. The snow kept softly falling down, blanketing all their shoulders and hair as the dragons reached the forest across the way, and led them inside, to a clearing. "We're not going to kill you, mages. But you may wish we had."
"And what DO you want, then?" Hadiya said coldly.
"We want you to learn about us. And there's one thing above all you will come to know. Fear." Phalanx said as King Maecoal clapped his hands and a large platoon of monster guards walked up, holding what appeared to be collars as several dragons reached out, fully wrapping their taloned hands around all of the mages. "Fear us, for we are your masters, and your fate, your life, rests in our grip."
To prove their point, they squeezed them all tightly, but not TOO tight, to get the point across. Tobias nodded back and they let go of them all as the platoon of guards approached.
"Lift your arms." King Maecoal commanded. They all complied, Chulainn being the last one, still gazing with pure venom at the puca. The ring-like collars were placed over their heads, maneuvered all the way down, down, down to the waist. It was frankly astounding how easily they stretched, and the metal felt warm to them all. The rings hummed and then somewhat shrank, right down to the size of each of their bellies, it expanded as they breathed, contracted when they inhaled.
"These magical rings will ensure you can't use your magic against us." Phalanx intoned. "Only when we command it, if you even THINK about trying to use any of your magic against us, or to bring harm to us, you will suffer. Do you understand?"
"Trust us, we'll find a way to make you pay." Erimentha promised.
"Oh...perhaps." Phalanx intoned. "But not today. Now then…" He cleared his throat. "Now then, King Maecoal?"
"Of course, of course." King Maecoal nodded. "We'll prepare the victory feast like you requested."
"And...Sakamoto?" Phalanx's face got gentler. "Where is he?"
"Unfortunately, it would appear he was able to slip away." King Maecoal intoned. "We've no idea where he is."
Solomon, however, did. As did Captain Abel Rogers. They had raced to the docks, taking shelter in the water when the chaos had occurred. As people's screams and yells filled the air, they'd dove down into the ocean, breaking through the ice as Sakamoto had raced alongside the two, surrounding all three in a bubble of air that he manifested. They'd waited under the expanse of the ice as the horrible screaming and the roars of flames and wash of acid died down, and had, at long last, after a solid fourteen minutes...ascended back up to head back to Dublin Town.
Just in time, in fact. They peered out from the busted-open ramparts, seeing their friends led away as Sakamoto frowned darkly. "...okay. We're going to need to come up with a plan." He informed the two. "My kind are NOT going to let seven mages go so easily." He murmured before noticing that Gaster wasn't far away. He was sobbing openly, hiding behind some bushes, and Solomon gently approached the young skeleton as they knelt down alongside him.
"They've taken them away...how are we going to get them back? We couldn't stand up to their magic, they've got some kind of spell that can freeze the very blood in your veins and make you stand stock still!" Gaster confessed, tears openly filling his eyes.
"...I know of that magic. And there is a way to combat it, but it requires help from people who have no blood to freeze. If we can deal with that dragon first...the others will be far easier to handle. We must call upon those who've left this world. Call upon ghost monsters."
"...there's some we do know." Gaster confessed. "At least one, at any rate. And I kept this way to keep in contact with them." He murmured as he slowly pulled out a very nice-looking magical mirror. "Mr. Bloke was the court magician before he expired, but even in death he still serves Tobias. He told us to use this to contact him."
"Good. Gooood." Sakamoto said with a smile. "Let's give him a call." He said as Gaster held the mirror up and spoke into it.
"Mr. Bloke."
The mirror began to shake and shudder as a silvery sheen fell over it, and then, a moment later, Mr. Bloke's rather cheery, albeit translucent, face manifested. "My dear boy, something's clearly wrong. You look terrible!" He told Gaster, his eyes wide. "Whatever is the matter?"
"Dragons have sided with the monsters and they took the mages." Solomon spoke up quickly. "We need help. One of them has magic that can freeze your very blood and chill you to the bone so you don't move."
"Since you've no blood or guts or anything...we need your help. You can neutralize this dragon so we can get the mages back." Abel told Bloke.
"Good idea, my boy. I can also use this mirror on my end to hone in upon Tobias's very soul. I'll check up upon him, see if he's still alright." The ghost monster informed them all. "Unfortunately, due to me being...well, a ghost, I can't ride atop of a dragon like yourself, good sir. I could go by boat, but I'm afraid of endangering the lives of innocent crewmembers. I'll have to go for the land of Ireland the old-fashioned way and fly over myself. Or rather, well, hover over the water. I'll go as fast as I can, but it will take me quite some time."
"Please, hurry." Gaster begged. "I don't even want to imagine what they all intend to do."