Chapter 52
Diablos walked onto the roof of the palace. He faced the rising sun and extracted a small rat's tail. He tossed it off the edge of the roof. He crossed his arms in front of his face as he was blown back by a furious gale. Diablos slowly lowered his hands to see Bahamut hovering in front of him.
"Why have you summoned me?" demanded the massive dragon, flapping his wings in irritation.
"Those bastards at the Magic Academy have gone too far!" shouted Diablos, "I want you to teach them a lesson!"
"Are you sure that is what you want?" asked Bahamut, arching a scaly eye ridge.
"Dammit, yes!" snarled Diablos, "I want them to pay!"
Bahamut nodded. "So be it!"
He unfurled his great wings and flew east. Diablos frowned as he saw a beam of red light cross the sky.
"My Lord?" asked Siren, approaching him from behind.
"Something's wrong," he muttered.
He spun around and walked back through the door. Siren stared at the light then reluctantly followed him.
Hundreds of miles away Headmaster Trent was reviewing a map with the elderly Professor Donner.
"Any reports from the field yet?" asked Trent, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"Last one we received was from General Conrad two days ago," said Donner, "The Doma troops have begun the siege of Styx."
"They'd better make use of Marcus and Serpentarius," said Trent coldly.
"No report from Julian or Ganamede yet," added Donner.
"I see," said Trent, leaning back in his chair.
"Do you really think the Atma Weapon is adequate to handle Tzen?" inquired Donner.
Trent smirked. "No, but we'll deal with Golgatha later."
Donner nodded. "Very well Headmaster."
The old man got up and hobbled out. Trent closed his eyes and sat very still. Gradually he became aware of a faint tapping noise. He opened his eyes and glanced around. The shutters on his window were vibrating slightly. He stood up and walked over to the windows and flung open the shutters. His jaw dropped in amazement to see the head of a massive dragon, regarding him quietly with crimson eyes.
"Your time is up," said the dragon quietly.
Bahamut was amazed how fast the man could run. He had reached the door when Bahamut opened his jaws and breathed out a pillar of blue light. The beam obliterated the office and punched through the back wall. The beam eventually burst forth from the outer wall on the opposite side of the tower. Bahamut began to fly away, circling in a slow spiral. Already fireballs were shooting out of the windows, pelting his hide. He ignored them. When he reached the top of the tower he hovered there for a moment and let loose a blood curdling roar that caused the whole tower to shake. Small specks appeared on the horizon, slowly getting larger. They resolved themselves into eight dragons flying in from all directions.
"King Bahamut!" roared a dragon with glittering silvery scales.
"Why are we here?" demanded a surly red dragon, flames spewing forth from the corners of his jaws.
"Destroy this tower," said Bahamut grimly.
"As you command," rasped a skeletal bone dragon.
The dragons began raking the sides of the Academy with their breath weapons. Explosions began to multiply on the insides, eerily illuminating the windows from within. A bulky gold dragon with a long thin neck blasted the base of the Academy, breaking apart the foundation. The tower began to shake and break apart.
"What did they do to warrant this?" asked a spindly white dragon.
"They were in the way," replied Bahamut.
They watched the tower totter and break into pieces. The fragments began to float upwards, creating a levitating cloud of debris.
"What the hell?" mused a serpentine blue dragon.
"It's releasing the magical energy they stored," replied a silver dragon.
Whole sections of the walls began to break apart and levitate. They saw the island shake and succumb the waves. The rubble continued to climb skyward like a plume of smoke.
"What now?" asked the bone dragon.
"We wait for the end," replied Bahamut.