Seeds of Rage has been updated 2020/02/09. Originally published in 2017.
Seeds of Rage
When Marth had said that there would be quite the battle ahead of them at the Millennium Court, he had been right. Actually, the Altean army had yet to even make it to the Millennium Court before they were met with another battle in Knorda Market. Grust's soldiers were a force to be reckoned with, especially this time—ballisticians were keeping all in Marth's forces on their toes, for fear of being shot at from afar.
Marth had ordered that their first priority was to make sure the townspeople were safe, so he split his forces—one to head northeast and press onward, and another smaller force to go southeast to check on the homes of the people of the market town. There had been a few swordsmen walking the streets that, as soon as they saw anyone from the Altean army, charged to attack. Thankfully, none of them had been too horribly strong—a few swift hits would take each one out of commission.
Roy was by himself and had made his way through the streets to check on people's homes, making sure that no one was hurt or in danger. Most of the townsfolk were too nervous to speak to him aside from answering whether they were safe or not when Roy asked, but one elderly woman did have a few words of her own opinion to share with him when he came to her door.
"I am sick and tired of this war," she grumbled, moving her arms to the sides exasperatedly. "If it ain't the screams of battle you're hearin', it's the bawlin' of the widows who lost their men. All of you should just go home to your loved ones if you ask me, and get outta here while you can."
Roy had simply agreed that war was tough, but it's what they had to do and that he would not be turning back. The old woman shook her head and wished him luck before closing the door. It took Roy a few moments to gather himself again after the conversation had ended.
How could he go back to his 'loved ones'? He had no home or 'loved ones' to return to—and even if he did, he could not remember them, no matter how hard he tried.
"As long as humans exist… this madness will never end!"
The man's voice in his head from just a couple days before rung in his ears again. As much as he hated it, the voice had a point. Humans lie to each other, fight each other, and kill each other. If they did not exist, those problems would no longer plague the world like they do now.
But even with that said, that did not mean humans should all just be gone. There are good people that, to Roy, outshined the bad—like Nyna, the princess of Akaneia who has been trying to free her homeland, or Marth, the prince of Altea… his friend. By this point in their journey, the young prince had shown himself to be an invaluable comrade that Roy could barely imagine living without. So even though war was horrible, and humans were the ones fighting each other here, simply turning his back to the wrongness of the world and hiding wasn't an option. Neither was damning all of humanity, like the voice in his head did.
A small sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head and turned away from the old woman's house. There were still a few more houses to check up on before he could return to the battlefield up north. With another short breath, Roy jogged down the street towards his next destination.
Marth was on his way towards the centre of the market town. He had only met with a couple of enemies on his way there, but he kept his guard up regardless. As he got closer, he felt a tenseness beginning to weigh on his shoulders, like something had been stalking him from behind. His grip on his sword's hilt tightened as he whipped around, ready to attack anything or anyone that may have been behind him.
Not but a few paces away, a cloaked figure stood, tome in hand. The figure's face was shrouded by his cowl.
"My, you are quite sharp," the cloaked man admired.
Marth pointed his blade, clearly wary. "Who are you?" he asked, glancing over the man's clothes.
His robes were dark, nearly black, with golden embroidery and markings that Marth had never seen before. The tome in his hand was similarly unrecognizable. "That's not really important, is it?" he responded coolly.
"It is when we are in the middle of a war," Marth shot back, his eyes narrowing. Generally, the prince was polite in his initial interactions, but this man was clearly not of the friendly sort. He blinked once and, to his surprise, the figure that was just in front of him was no longer there.
"Closing your eyes isn't exactly smart practice when faced with an enemy," came the man's voice from behind. Marth instantly swung himself back around, slicing his sword through the cloaked man's side. However, instead of slicing through skin and bone, the blade simply sliced through a shadowy mist. Alarmed, Marth quickly looked around him.
The man was a few paces away from Marth, on his left. He chuckled slightly. "This is amusing and all, but I've no time for games today," he said. "I just came to see your progress."
"My progress?" Marth repeated skeptically and turned to face him, his sword still at the ready.
"Yes, the fact that you fight so hard is amusing to me," the man responded. "And you hold hands with your so-called 'comrades' and expect them all to cooperate and listen to you. It's… funny."
Marth could not help but scowl at the man's amusement. "What is the point of this?" he questioned, clearly growing agitated, though he kept his emotion reigned in.
"Ah," the man started, and Marth could see the faintest of smiles beneath the shadow cast by his hood. "I just wanted to see the look on your face just before your bubble is finally burst."
"Enough of these riddles," Marth responded, ready to attack him again.
The cloaked figure laughed. "You protest me now, and yet you know nothing. Keep a close eye on the ones you hold dear, or else you may just be faced with something you will not able to handle," he warned, though he was clearly amused.
With a frustrated grunt, Marth ran at the cloaked man and stabbed at him with his blade. However, even though he had been quick, the man still dodged out of the way, and with another laugh and mumbling of something inaudible, he disappeared into a dark wind. With an exasperated exhale, Marth looked around him once more. The foreboding feeling he had before had disappeared entirely and the cloaked man was nowhere to be seen. Marth shook his head before moving to stand up straight.
"What was that," he thought out loud.
Deciding against standing there in thought too much longer, the prince continued on his way to the town centre. It was there he saw a band of ruffians causing problems for the townspeople and refusing to back down to the other two soldiers of Marth's, Abel and Roy, that had made it there before him. As soon as Marth approached, however, the ruffians went from obnoxiously uncooperative to scared out of their wits, and their leader called for them all to retreat. Abel muttered under his breath as he watched them run off, clearly frustrated with how inept they were, and Roy simply shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
The three of them checked up on the Akaneians that had been held hostage by the gang and made sure that no one had been seriously hurt. Once they were all considered well, Marth asked for them all to go home to their families and stay out of harm's way. Every hostage happily obliged, clearly ready to go home, except for one—a young woman by the name of Linde who had disguised herself as a boy.
"My father was Miloah," she explained. "Because of that, Gharnef had sent his soldiers after me… so I went into hiding. But I was taken by those ruffians right after I escaped Gharnef..."
"Well, I am glad we've found you now and that you are safe," Marth responded. "Princess Nyna will be happy to see you again—she's been worried about you. I promise I will keep you away from danger so that you may surely see her again."
However, Linde would have none of that—a fire lit in her eyes as her expression hardened. "No. Let me fight," she said. "I want to avenge my father and destroy Gharnef!"
Marth was clearly unsure of the idea, but he could not tell Linde no. Therefore, he allowed her to join as a mage, so that she could fight with them against Gharnef and Doluna. The farther their army travelled, the more Marth saw of people like this: those that were broken by the enemy and lost all that they held dear and were driven by vengeance. While he understood their emotion and could not tell them to change their mind, it did not help but make him sad to see so many people consumed by hatred.
With the market town now checked and deemed safe, Marth led his small group back up north into the fields to meet up with the rest of the army. They had made quite a bit of headway—Jagen had led them forward and they were already nearing the outer walls of the palace. The ground rumbled as Marth, Abel, Linde and Roy continued their trek to meet with their comrades.
"What was that…?!" Marth questioned.
The answer came in the form of a loud, echoing roar.
"A dragon!" Abel exclaimed.
Roy had clammed up slightly at first, but quickly shook himself free of the feeling as he remembered Marth's encouraging words from before.
"If there's a dragon, then….!" Marth began, but was quickly cut off by Cain, who was riding towards them on his horse.
"Prince Marth! We've got to hurry!" he shouted. "There's a fire dragon! There might not even be a palace left to liberate at this point if we don't kill it, and fast!"
There was another roar and heat radiated from around the cliff bend. Cain led Marth and the others around to where the rest of the army was fighting, and the sight was a shock to all of them. A massive fire dragon was rampaging in the field near the castle, setting anything that moved alight with its flame breath.
"Burn! Burn!" the dragon roared. "Burn everything! I, Khozen, will kill all of you!"
Khozen swung his tail around, crashing it into a crowd of Marth's men, sending them all flying and tumbling across the ground, either unconscious or dead.
"No!" Marth shouted, gripping his sword. Never in his life had he seen so many people taken down at once, with no chance at fighting back. The sound of Marth's voice drew Khozen's attention towards his group. There was a glint of mad pleasure in the dragon's eyes as embers flitted away from the corners of its maw.
It was like Pyrathi all over again, but this time it was even worse. Roy felt his stomach tighten as the dragon towered over them, not once breaking eye contact, like a hunter staring down its prey.
"You humans… you of this bastard prince's army, you are all the same! Even those of you that know not what they are fighting for," the dragon Khozen growled, its gaze shifting for a moment to Roy before looking back towards Marth, "All of you… You shall suffer for your arrogance! Burn! Your blood and flesh, I will set it all ablaze in the name of Medeus!"
With a feral roar, Khozen raised his claw in preparation to slam it down on them.
"Everyone, move!" Marth yelled out, and all five of them quickly ran in different directions to escape the attack.
Khozen's claw slammed down into the spot where they had all just been standing, causing the earth to shake and the ground to buckle and crack beneath the force of the attack. Cain and Abel were the targets of Khozen's flame breath next, and both rode their horses out of the way as quickly as they could, with Abel barely making it out of the way. The fight was completely one-sided—none of them could even remotely get close enough to Khozen to try to attack him, but Khozen was constantly throwing things their way. It was completely overwhelming, and Marth could feel his head spinning from the intense heat of the flames being spat over and over.
"Die, die!" Khozen roared and slammed his tail into the ground, causing it to shake. "You will never surpass us!"
Marth could barely keep his footing from the last quake, and he stumbled a few steps. This gave enough of an opening for Khozen and he let out another roar as he readied his claw to slam into Marth.
Roy glanced up just as Khozen rose his claw in the air, and his eyes widened—the memory of Pyrathi flashed vividly in his eyes, where Marth had been disoriented and struck down by Mannu's claw.
It was going to happen again. But this time, Marth wouldn't make it out of the attack alive.
"Die!" Khozen's voice boomed as he brought his claw down.
"No!" Roy yelled, a fire ablaze in his chest. The firestone burned in his satchel and he lunged forward with a sudden burst of incredible speed, his arms outstretched.
Khozen's claw came crashing down onto the ground and flames erupted from the ground, causing thick black smoke to billow out.
"Prince Marth!" Abel cried out, and he and the others were all sure he had met his fate.
Inside the smoke, Marth clutched to Roy's chest and coughed profusely. Roy had tackled him just before Khozen's claw made contact and they had rolled rather violently across the ground. As the smoke started to clear, Marth began to open his eyes, even though the burning feeling of the smoke forced him keep them squinted. However, what he saw above him made him forget the pain in his eyes and he quickly opened them wide.
Roy was breathing heavily above him, his eyes clenched tightly, and red crystalline scales were dotting his skin under his eyes. His teeth were sharper and his hair seemed a little bit wilder, and his body was almost as hot as fire.
"R… Roy," Marth barely stuttered, at a loss for words.
After a moment that seemed to last forever, Roy slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were a deep red and his pupils were thin slits. Marth's whole body tensed in shock and, initially, fear.
"… Are… you okay?" Roy grunted, his voice quiet and rough. Even though his eyes were frightening at first sight, there was still a genuine kindness and concern in them that showed Roy was still very much himself, at least at that moment.
"I… I'm fine," Marth mumbled in response, and Roy nodded slightly at that. The smoke cleared enough for Khozen to spot them once again, and he let out a loud roar. His tail came to slam down on them.
"Look out!" Marth shouted as he quickly pushed Roy over with himself, and the tail slammed into the ground right next to them, causing a powerful enough blast of wind to send them rolling a few more feet.
Roy grunted as they settled again on the ground, this time with Marth above him, and Marth glanced over to Khozen. "We've got to get up," he said quickly before scrambling back to get to his feet and grip the hilt of his rapier. Roy pushed himself off the ground as well, and Khozen seemed to laugh.
"You are such a fool! You don't even know what you're doing!" he roared. "Tell me, stupid manakete: how do you expect to kill me without even utilizing your own strength?!"
Marth grit his teeth and glanced towards Roy, who still had his back facing Khozen. His eyes were closed and his brow was furrowed, and it was clear to Marth that he was doing his best to hold himself back.
Roy's mind was churning as he was filtering through his emotions. There was a feral force that kept pressing and prodding to break free, and the force burning in his chest only grew as he tried to ignore it. The elder dragon's taunts did his fragile mental state no good as his words tugged at that angry being within him, tempting to draw it out. The prince could practically see the warring within his comrade's mind as his expression twisted into one more focused and scrunched, his eyes remaining firmly clenched.
"Roy… don't let him get to you," Marth panted out.
"You are a lost fool! Let that stone take hold of you and show me what dragons like you are capable of!" Khozen taunted. "Or are you too afraid to let it free?!"
At that, there was a short silence as Roy let out the breath he had been holding in. With a shift of his weight on his feet, he began to turn to face their enemy. Marth tensed at the movement and looked more towards Roy.
"Roy—"
"Marth, get back," Roy said as he opened his eyes, still burning red, to look straight up at Khozen. "I will deal with him."
"Roy!" Marth tried again. "You shouldn't—"
"Marth! I said get back!" Roy shouted as he stared at Khozen, his voice laced with a roar.
Even though his mind and body told Marth to not leave, the prince decided to back down. Hesitantly, he took a few steps back, and Cain rode over to protect him. The prince kept his eyes firmly trained on his comrade as he noted the growing energy emanating from his body.
"You are one of us, even if you refuse to accept it," Khozen growled. "It doesn't matter if you look different. You are one of us!"
Roy said nothing and lunged up at Khozen's head, his sword leaving a trail of fire behind him. Khozen roared and moved his head out of the way of Roy's attack, bringing his claw up to slash at him. Streaks of fire lit up the sky around Khozen as Roy leapt around, trying to attack him.
"You don't even know what you're fighting for!" Khozen roared as he swung his tail at Roy once again. "You have such a fire in your soul, yet it has no direction!"
Roy heard all of Khozen's taunts and though he tried to pay them no mind, the dragon's words were needling his consciousness and further antagonizing that growing ferocity that Roy had been holding back. Khozen, realizing Roy's growing fragility, finally decided to go for the one nerve in Roy's head that he had been prodding for the whole time:
"That cloaked man was right, you are weak! So weak and afraid of yourself that you'll watch your friends here all die by dragons, just like the ones in your own land will now that you are gone!"
With that, the single thread keeping Roy's mind held together snapped and a flood of emotions washed over him. He gnashed his teeth together before letting out a loud, echoing roar. Muddled memories of war, many people he could not recognize, and pain flashed through his mind as if something in him was trying to grab hold of anything from his past to keep him grounded—but there was no such luck.
Marth's eyes widened and he yelled out his friend's name as he watched him be consumed by fire. The flames burned so brightly that he and the others had to shield their eyes, and Khozen laughed manically.
"Ahaha! Get angry! Let those seeds of rage sprout and show us your true self!" he boomed in twisted amusement.
A low draconic roar permeated the air and the brightness of the fire lessened enough that Marth could uncover his eyes. However, as soon as he uncovered them, he wished that everything he saw before him was just some sick, twisted nightmare.
There stood, in front of Khozen, another horrific beast.
Flames erupted from its back as it roared. Marth could not believe what he saw.
Roy had transformed into a fire dragon.