Disclaimer: I'm starting to get real sick of these disclaimers.**pokes
Albert**
Albert: **holds up a sign that says 'Shade does not own LOD'** . Thank
Soa for that.
POV: Ragnarok
Sometimes I wonder why I started out on this pointless journey in the first place. It's not like I'd care if the human race were destroyed. In the past, I had actually tried to achieve that ideal myself; all they do is cause noise and confusion anyway. If I had left things be, the Moon Child would have taken care of the humans on its own. Unfortunately it would also kill the other races in the process, and no matter how much I liked the idea of humans and winglies being sucked out of existence, I had no such wish for the same thing to happen to the dragons.
A dragon's existence is different than that of other species. Humans pass us off as stupid; winglies respect us. All species fear our destructive nature and the power that we wield. Yet through all of this fear and respect, they remain oblivious to the fact that we, along with our incarnations, are the soul guardians of this world.
I accept this fact grudgingly. I do not see why the strong should protect the weak; in my mind if you need to be protected than you do not deserve to live. The other dragons think along other lines. Maybe the humans are correct in thinking them stupid. Their connections to their human partners must have slowed their minds; fifteen thousand years ago they would have been content to let humans and winglies fight until they destroyed each other utterly while we sat by and watched. But Soa was not to let that be.
Eleven thousand years ago, in response to the human's pleas for aid and liberation, Soa bound the fate of the dragons to that of the humans. Seven dragons, Rythl, Madgor, Xern, Acrrea, Kaze, Evengil, and Umbre, were slain by humans and reborn as partners to the dragon knights, or dragoons. Together they acted as the spearhead of the human armies, following a man who called himself Diaz. Predictably most of the dragoons died during the final battle, but their dragons survived.
I did not join the fight for more reasons than one. Besides my general will not to become involved in what I deemed 'pointless conflicts', I was deeply disturbed by the implications of what Soa had done. Though no human had approached me in request of aid, I could none the less feel the presence of one such being somewhere in the future. And though he had not yet begun to move about in the world, the presence of his spirit hovered at the back of my mind like an ominous cloud.
At first I raged at the fact that I may someday find myself slave to the will of some unworthy human, but soon I became confident that no one, not even one aided by the will of Soa himself, would be able to over come me. My mind and spirit where limitless; surely no feebleminded human would be able to overcome it.
However, my musings where interrupted when a group of enterprising young winglies decided that I should be sealed away, lest I decide to join the fight against them. One wingly, or even ten, does not provide much of a threat to a dragon such as myself. Even the hundred that they sent to fight me did not worry me unduly. But it was not numbers that was against me that day. My defeat came about through the use of two items used by Melbu Frahma himself.
Dragon Buster and Dragon Block Staff.
And so I was subdued and sealed within my own lair. There I spent eleven thousand years in solitude with only my hatred and thoughts of revenge upon the wingly race for solace. Eleven thousand years may seem like a long time to dwell on one thought such as revenge, but one does not lightly take defeat by an inferior race. And so over the millennia my hatred for that race festered and grew, occupying my every waking moment and thought. And so when I was finally released, I turned my anger and hatred to the nearest creation of the accursed winglies.
I will admit that I was put out slightly when I flew over the Crystal Palace and found that humans rather than winglies occupied it. So humans had won the war. An unexpected turn of events, but beyond being robbed of a convenient target for revenge I was not really concerned. I could still feel the presence of winglies in the world, so my lust for revenge would not have long to wait before it was sated.
I was making my final pass over the human city when I felt it. The spirit whose presence had rested at the back of my mind for so long was no longer dormant. He was in the city below me, struggling to come to bear with the force of my mind. I had not been aware of myself reaching out to him, but I guessed that somewhere in my subconscious I had. Focusing on the matter briefly, I found him rejecting me; struggling to force me out of his mind without being aware of what I was. In the few moments that I was in contact with his mind I found myself caught up in a welter of images and emotions. Places and things so familiar that they may have well been snatched out of the past. Things so new and alien that my mind instinctively flinched back from them. And out of the images that blurred through my mind, one caught my immediate attention.
Dragoons. This human knew of the dragoons. And more than that, I realized, he was already one of them.
Delving deeper into his mind I caught a flash of a large red stone, about the size of a human heart. But before I could press for even more information, I found myself being pushed back to the edge of the dragoon's psyche. An aura of power, weaker than my own but none the less formidable, washed over me. Another mind was there, blocking me out. I recognized that mind instantly.
// Rythl//
~Ragnarok~
//Would you care to explain what you are doing here in the mind of this human?//
~Your mind must be growing dull in your old age. He carries my spirit~
//But the other-// I groped for the name.
~Zeig?~
//Yes. I thought that human was your partner? Did he abandon you?// I asked, not bothering to hide my amusement.
~Not really. The time will come when we are reunited. Until that day, I reside with his son and prepare him for the presence of your tainted mind~
//Then your work is for naught. I will never become the slave of some insignificant human//
~Do you really think that you have a choice? Eleven thousand years ago we where given to the humans. What makes you think that you have any more say in the matter than we did?~
//I am beyond you. I have no use for the will of others//
~But will you contend with the will of Soa?~ he pressed.
//If I must. Is that not what you and your human friend do day by day?//
~We contend with Soa's plan, not Soa himself. And if this plan comes to pass then we are all doomed, no matter how far aloof we hold our selves from other creatures~
I felt myself becoming irritable. //You bore me, Rythl. Go back to your babysitting//
~As you wish. He is, after all, your partner~
//We'll see about that//
~ We will indeed. Farewell, Ragnarok~
I detached myself from the human's mind and flew back to my mountain in silence. Inwardly I cursed Rythl's confidence. Normally I would have ignored him, were it not for my own doubt gnawing at the back of my mind.
Not sure what to do about the apparent absence of the winglies, I contented myself with a second assault on the Crystal Palace. But what I found disturbed me even more than the discovery of my so-called 'partner'. Though my attack had blown the top off of the castle, I sensed that it's occupants where still alive and unharmed. As I made one final pass over the town, I perceived an aura of such power that it made my mind reel. In all of the history of this world, there has only ever been one creature with the potential for such power.
The Moon Child.
The re-appearance of the Child explained the presence of the dragoons. If the Moon Child had eluded destruction then only beings with such power as they would have the ability to stop it. Meaning that sooner or later, my 'partner' would come for my spirit. Resigned, I returned to my lair to await the humans.
I didn't have long to wait. Surprisingly it wasn't the dragoons that came to confront me first as I would have expected. Fate was playing little irony games again. Winglies seal me for fear I would join the humans, and now a wingly tries to kill me for fear that I would destroy the humans. If I wasn't so bent on burning the bastard in divine fire, I might have laughed. Note the might have. This wingly was the strongest I'd ever seen or heard of and in addition to that he carried the dragon buster. Though it was obvious who the eventual victor would be, I was nonetheless hard pressed.
It wasn't until we were both almost dead from exhaustion and blood loss that the dragoons came. After a short terse conversation, the wingly moved to the sidelines to watch the outcome and heal while the dragoons finished off the job. Utilizing the dragon block staff they managed to drain off the most potent of my abilities, sacrificing the power of their dragoon stones to do so.
Despite the fact that they are human the power of the dragon is always with the dragoons, even when they are not in armor. After a relatively short battle, I was defeated by my 'partner', yet another wingly, and a man wielding a spear. And even as I lie upon the rocks dying, I saw the wingly I had fought before leap from his hiding place in the rock to land before my main eye.
It is strange that so many things can change in the course of eleven thousand years, and yet so many things remain the same. Like how to obtain a dragoon stone. As I took my final breath, the wingly plunged the dragon buster into my eye and cut it open. The pain of this was distant; my spirit was condensing into the dragoon stone, my final form. But before the stone could shatter and thus save my spirit from being the slave of a human, the wingly reached into the cut he had made in my eye and pulled out the stone.
After this there is not much to tell. I spent a month or so contained within that sphere. From time to time the wingly would try to coax me into allowing him the use of the divine armor, but I made sure that the stone remained dull and lifeless in his hands. He was able, however, to use the energy that radiated off the stone to create an armor only slightly less powerful than that of a dragoon. Seemingly content with that, he left me alone to brood in silence. From time to time I could feel the presence of the other stones, but that was all. It remained like this for quite some time until, nearly a month later, I felt the wingly die and the stone changed owners.
Dart picked it up. Until now Rythl had kept his name a secret from me, but it appeared that the red-eye dragoon's spirit had moved on, leaving me free to move into his mind. I now understood the other dragon's eagerness to join with their partner. While in that stone I had been blind and deaf to all that went on around me. When you become connected to your partner it's like being born again. Rebirth was within reach, if only he would activate the stone.
It took him awhile. He seemed hesitant to use the stone, fighting with his sword instead, as though he wasn't quite sure that he deserved to use my power. It wasn't until he received a wound that endangered his life that he called upon my strength. I was only too eager to oblige. As the armor spread over his body, his mind let down its guard. Taking a chance, I bulled my way in.
The shock of it was the equivalent of being struck by lightning. In a heartbeat I could see, hear, touch and feel again. Sifting through Dart's memories I saw all that had gone on while I slept, or at least what he knew of it. And through the rush of information I slowly became aware of what he and his companions where fighting.
Virage Embryo.
The god of destruction had been born. In spite of all the precautions that the winglies had taken, it still had been born. I focused on the monstrosity before us. In response to my discovery, I felt Dart frown slightly. This wasn't the true god of destruction. The soul of the god had been forcefully extracted from its host and implanted into another, more willing, host. This god may be complete, but he was not pure. He still could be beaten.
As we fought, I gradually became aware that Dart was struggling with my instincts. The need to kill was slowly overpowering him, and though he was sating it for the time being by attacking the monstrosity, if he could not control it there was no telling who he'd attack. Regretfully I retreated to the back of his mind, easing his urge to kill.
The fight went on for quite some time. Dart changed rapidly back and forth from human to dragoon, occasionally using a spell or two. The god, whom I had now identified as Melbu Frahma, changed forms almost as often. Finally Melbu hesitated, unsure of what move to make next. Taking advantage of the gap in attacks, Dart transformed and began to gather energy for a spell. The Divine Dragon Cannon. As he prepared to cast the spell, I began to feed some of my power into his own to strengthen the blast.
The force of the explosion was astronomical. It engulfed Melbu in a bluish-white light, the recoil of firing it blasting us back a full hundred feet or so. In my place in the back of Dart's mind I felt a mix of exultation and dismay. The blast had been as powerful as any I myself had created while I had been alive. The fact that I had needed the mind and body of this human to create such carnage dampened any mildly pleasing thoughts I may have had.
Retreating to the back of Dart's mind once more, I shut out his thoughts. He was still oblivious to my existence, so I had no need to worry about being interrupted. Eleven thousand years is a long time to be asleep and many things happen of which we are not aware. Not one to let the past rest lightly, I settled myself down to the task of piecing together the disjointed information Dart knew about what had happened while I slept.
Something told me that sooner or later we would need it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There! Sorry about the gap in updates, but I'm hitting a massive amount of writer's blocks lately. .; Oh well. Hope you liked it!
Sometimes I wonder why I started out on this pointless journey in the first place. It's not like I'd care if the human race were destroyed. In the past, I had actually tried to achieve that ideal myself; all they do is cause noise and confusion anyway. If I had left things be, the Moon Child would have taken care of the humans on its own. Unfortunately it would also kill the other races in the process, and no matter how much I liked the idea of humans and winglies being sucked out of existence, I had no such wish for the same thing to happen to the dragons.
A dragon's existence is different than that of other species. Humans pass us off as stupid; winglies respect us. All species fear our destructive nature and the power that we wield. Yet through all of this fear and respect, they remain oblivious to the fact that we, along with our incarnations, are the soul guardians of this world.
I accept this fact grudgingly. I do not see why the strong should protect the weak; in my mind if you need to be protected than you do not deserve to live. The other dragons think along other lines. Maybe the humans are correct in thinking them stupid. Their connections to their human partners must have slowed their minds; fifteen thousand years ago they would have been content to let humans and winglies fight until they destroyed each other utterly while we sat by and watched. But Soa was not to let that be.
Eleven thousand years ago, in response to the human's pleas for aid and liberation, Soa bound the fate of the dragons to that of the humans. Seven dragons, Rythl, Madgor, Xern, Acrrea, Kaze, Evengil, and Umbre, were slain by humans and reborn as partners to the dragon knights, or dragoons. Together they acted as the spearhead of the human armies, following a man who called himself Diaz. Predictably most of the dragoons died during the final battle, but their dragons survived.
I did not join the fight for more reasons than one. Besides my general will not to become involved in what I deemed 'pointless conflicts', I was deeply disturbed by the implications of what Soa had done. Though no human had approached me in request of aid, I could none the less feel the presence of one such being somewhere in the future. And though he had not yet begun to move about in the world, the presence of his spirit hovered at the back of my mind like an ominous cloud.
At first I raged at the fact that I may someday find myself slave to the will of some unworthy human, but soon I became confident that no one, not even one aided by the will of Soa himself, would be able to over come me. My mind and spirit where limitless; surely no feebleminded human would be able to overcome it.
However, my musings where interrupted when a group of enterprising young winglies decided that I should be sealed away, lest I decide to join the fight against them. One wingly, or even ten, does not provide much of a threat to a dragon such as myself. Even the hundred that they sent to fight me did not worry me unduly. But it was not numbers that was against me that day. My defeat came about through the use of two items used by Melbu Frahma himself.
Dragon Buster and Dragon Block Staff.
And so I was subdued and sealed within my own lair. There I spent eleven thousand years in solitude with only my hatred and thoughts of revenge upon the wingly race for solace. Eleven thousand years may seem like a long time to dwell on one thought such as revenge, but one does not lightly take defeat by an inferior race. And so over the millennia my hatred for that race festered and grew, occupying my every waking moment and thought. And so when I was finally released, I turned my anger and hatred to the nearest creation of the accursed winglies.
I will admit that I was put out slightly when I flew over the Crystal Palace and found that humans rather than winglies occupied it. So humans had won the war. An unexpected turn of events, but beyond being robbed of a convenient target for revenge I was not really concerned. I could still feel the presence of winglies in the world, so my lust for revenge would not have long to wait before it was sated.
I was making my final pass over the human city when I felt it. The spirit whose presence had rested at the back of my mind for so long was no longer dormant. He was in the city below me, struggling to come to bear with the force of my mind. I had not been aware of myself reaching out to him, but I guessed that somewhere in my subconscious I had. Focusing on the matter briefly, I found him rejecting me; struggling to force me out of his mind without being aware of what I was. In the few moments that I was in contact with his mind I found myself caught up in a welter of images and emotions. Places and things so familiar that they may have well been snatched out of the past. Things so new and alien that my mind instinctively flinched back from them. And out of the images that blurred through my mind, one caught my immediate attention.
Dragoons. This human knew of the dragoons. And more than that, I realized, he was already one of them.
Delving deeper into his mind I caught a flash of a large red stone, about the size of a human heart. But before I could press for even more information, I found myself being pushed back to the edge of the dragoon's psyche. An aura of power, weaker than my own but none the less formidable, washed over me. Another mind was there, blocking me out. I recognized that mind instantly.
// Rythl//
~Ragnarok~
//Would you care to explain what you are doing here in the mind of this human?//
~Your mind must be growing dull in your old age. He carries my spirit~
//But the other-// I groped for the name.
~Zeig?~
//Yes. I thought that human was your partner? Did he abandon you?// I asked, not bothering to hide my amusement.
~Not really. The time will come when we are reunited. Until that day, I reside with his son and prepare him for the presence of your tainted mind~
//Then your work is for naught. I will never become the slave of some insignificant human//
~Do you really think that you have a choice? Eleven thousand years ago we where given to the humans. What makes you think that you have any more say in the matter than we did?~
//I am beyond you. I have no use for the will of others//
~But will you contend with the will of Soa?~ he pressed.
//If I must. Is that not what you and your human friend do day by day?//
~We contend with Soa's plan, not Soa himself. And if this plan comes to pass then we are all doomed, no matter how far aloof we hold our selves from other creatures~
I felt myself becoming irritable. //You bore me, Rythl. Go back to your babysitting//
~As you wish. He is, after all, your partner~
//We'll see about that//
~ We will indeed. Farewell, Ragnarok~
I detached myself from the human's mind and flew back to my mountain in silence. Inwardly I cursed Rythl's confidence. Normally I would have ignored him, were it not for my own doubt gnawing at the back of my mind.
Not sure what to do about the apparent absence of the winglies, I contented myself with a second assault on the Crystal Palace. But what I found disturbed me even more than the discovery of my so-called 'partner'. Though my attack had blown the top off of the castle, I sensed that it's occupants where still alive and unharmed. As I made one final pass over the town, I perceived an aura of such power that it made my mind reel. In all of the history of this world, there has only ever been one creature with the potential for such power.
The Moon Child.
The re-appearance of the Child explained the presence of the dragoons. If the Moon Child had eluded destruction then only beings with such power as they would have the ability to stop it. Meaning that sooner or later, my 'partner' would come for my spirit. Resigned, I returned to my lair to await the humans.
I didn't have long to wait. Surprisingly it wasn't the dragoons that came to confront me first as I would have expected. Fate was playing little irony games again. Winglies seal me for fear I would join the humans, and now a wingly tries to kill me for fear that I would destroy the humans. If I wasn't so bent on burning the bastard in divine fire, I might have laughed. Note the might have. This wingly was the strongest I'd ever seen or heard of and in addition to that he carried the dragon buster. Though it was obvious who the eventual victor would be, I was nonetheless hard pressed.
It wasn't until we were both almost dead from exhaustion and blood loss that the dragoons came. After a short terse conversation, the wingly moved to the sidelines to watch the outcome and heal while the dragoons finished off the job. Utilizing the dragon block staff they managed to drain off the most potent of my abilities, sacrificing the power of their dragoon stones to do so.
Despite the fact that they are human the power of the dragon is always with the dragoons, even when they are not in armor. After a relatively short battle, I was defeated by my 'partner', yet another wingly, and a man wielding a spear. And even as I lie upon the rocks dying, I saw the wingly I had fought before leap from his hiding place in the rock to land before my main eye.
It is strange that so many things can change in the course of eleven thousand years, and yet so many things remain the same. Like how to obtain a dragoon stone. As I took my final breath, the wingly plunged the dragon buster into my eye and cut it open. The pain of this was distant; my spirit was condensing into the dragoon stone, my final form. But before the stone could shatter and thus save my spirit from being the slave of a human, the wingly reached into the cut he had made in my eye and pulled out the stone.
After this there is not much to tell. I spent a month or so contained within that sphere. From time to time the wingly would try to coax me into allowing him the use of the divine armor, but I made sure that the stone remained dull and lifeless in his hands. He was able, however, to use the energy that radiated off the stone to create an armor only slightly less powerful than that of a dragoon. Seemingly content with that, he left me alone to brood in silence. From time to time I could feel the presence of the other stones, but that was all. It remained like this for quite some time until, nearly a month later, I felt the wingly die and the stone changed owners.
Dart picked it up. Until now Rythl had kept his name a secret from me, but it appeared that the red-eye dragoon's spirit had moved on, leaving me free to move into his mind. I now understood the other dragon's eagerness to join with their partner. While in that stone I had been blind and deaf to all that went on around me. When you become connected to your partner it's like being born again. Rebirth was within reach, if only he would activate the stone.
It took him awhile. He seemed hesitant to use the stone, fighting with his sword instead, as though he wasn't quite sure that he deserved to use my power. It wasn't until he received a wound that endangered his life that he called upon my strength. I was only too eager to oblige. As the armor spread over his body, his mind let down its guard. Taking a chance, I bulled my way in.
The shock of it was the equivalent of being struck by lightning. In a heartbeat I could see, hear, touch and feel again. Sifting through Dart's memories I saw all that had gone on while I slept, or at least what he knew of it. And through the rush of information I slowly became aware of what he and his companions where fighting.
Virage Embryo.
The god of destruction had been born. In spite of all the precautions that the winglies had taken, it still had been born. I focused on the monstrosity before us. In response to my discovery, I felt Dart frown slightly. This wasn't the true god of destruction. The soul of the god had been forcefully extracted from its host and implanted into another, more willing, host. This god may be complete, but he was not pure. He still could be beaten.
As we fought, I gradually became aware that Dart was struggling with my instincts. The need to kill was slowly overpowering him, and though he was sating it for the time being by attacking the monstrosity, if he could not control it there was no telling who he'd attack. Regretfully I retreated to the back of his mind, easing his urge to kill.
The fight went on for quite some time. Dart changed rapidly back and forth from human to dragoon, occasionally using a spell or two. The god, whom I had now identified as Melbu Frahma, changed forms almost as often. Finally Melbu hesitated, unsure of what move to make next. Taking advantage of the gap in attacks, Dart transformed and began to gather energy for a spell. The Divine Dragon Cannon. As he prepared to cast the spell, I began to feed some of my power into his own to strengthen the blast.
The force of the explosion was astronomical. It engulfed Melbu in a bluish-white light, the recoil of firing it blasting us back a full hundred feet or so. In my place in the back of Dart's mind I felt a mix of exultation and dismay. The blast had been as powerful as any I myself had created while I had been alive. The fact that I had needed the mind and body of this human to create such carnage dampened any mildly pleasing thoughts I may have had.
Retreating to the back of Dart's mind once more, I shut out his thoughts. He was still oblivious to my existence, so I had no need to worry about being interrupted. Eleven thousand years is a long time to be asleep and many things happen of which we are not aware. Not one to let the past rest lightly, I settled myself down to the task of piecing together the disjointed information Dart knew about what had happened while I slept.
Something told me that sooner or later we would need it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There! Sorry about the gap in updates, but I'm hitting a massive amount of writer's blocks lately. .; Oh well. Hope you liked it!