Intermission

Teverin sniffed the wind. He felt something was about to change today. He was leading a contingent of Knights to invade another territory, but he could not shake off a feeling of uneasiness. This was unprecedented. A dragon as mighty as he, feeling nervous before the eve of battle? This was not right. He looked behind him.

His children, mighty Loern soldiers and Draconic heroes even by his own standards, watched vigilantly for disorder amongst the ranks of their Knights. Of course, the Knights are an extremely well disciplined bunch, nothing in comparison to the lazy and weak soldiers his enemies had. But what his enemies lack in quality certainly makes up in quantity. His twin children, Joti and Jozi always reminded him to give caution and mind their tactics behind battle. Teverin always felt that the use of tactics rather than straightforward clashes was cowardly, but he disregarded it as merely a feature meant to crush his enemies faster. The Twins had more than earned their respect and his benefit of the doubt.

He watched the sea of red scales glimmer underneath the hot summer sun, each Knight barely noticing the intense heatwave currently going on. Below him, he barely acknowledged the tens of thousands of slaves faithfully keeping up with their masters. They stripped the land of resources and prey as they rolled by, both starving the enemy of their supplies and sustaining themselves for the journey.

Teverin thought back to the day the Dragon Emperor made an announcement to his Dragon Lords. He had proudly held up an item for all of his Lords to see. It was an incredibly powerful item, so rare and beautiful and delicious that Teverin could not believe that such an item exists. No Wild Magic item, no precious gem or metal or craft could compare to what the Dragon Emperor beheld before them. It was as if a world, with all its magic, had condensed itself into one form. His nose had tickled with delight, and his greed flared up. He could observe the same greed filling the eyes of the other Dragon Lords there.

But the Dragon Emperor had also made a startling revelation. He introduced five humans and a strange-looking monster and declared that these people are their superiors and not to be harmed. They are to be given a piece of land far west, within the domain of a Dragon Lord who had been skipping out on providing tribute to the Dragon Emperor. Naturally, all the Lords there were bewildered. Why would they give such respect and servitude to a race that has hitherto been known as very weak and subservient slaves? Perhaps the bone creature could've been a threat, as they have never seen such a race before, but humans?

Of course the Dragon Lord who had a large chunk of his domain taken away from him protested. His retainers flared up their wings and surrounded their Lord to protect him. The Dragon Emperor, predicting this, told him to kill the humans and the bone-man if he wanted his domain back. What happened next was a sight Teverin never thought he would never see before.

The retainers spread their wings, and breathed fury on the humans, who were shocked by this development. The Dragon Emperor nodded to them, and they sprang into action as one. The frost breath from the dragons didn't even seem to affect them. The bone man reached out and closed its hand while muttering something, and one of the dragons, a massive white-scaled dragon, fell from the sky, as if the Sun himself clipped his wings. He didn't even twitch as his body crashed onto the six strange beings. The retainers and their Lord stared in shock, as if they couldn't believe their eyes. Then, another sight happened that Teverin couldn't believe. Fire rained down from the sky, and a massive meteor dropped from the clouds, smashing onto a couple of retainers and instantly gibbing them into bits. The dead dragon on the ground was then split in half, and a human wielding a massive sword jumped into the air. He spun around and promptly decapitated the final retainer defending the Dragon Lord. Fresh blood glistened in the air and fell onto the ground, promptly freezing everything it touched. The Dragon Lord roared, and angrily swiped at the human, expecting to instantly crush it to death. Teverin by now expected the human to survive. But to watch it casually swat the claw strike away, as if it was an attack made by a playful dragonling and not the mightiest dragon in the West, shook him to his core. This was a dragon almost as mighty as Teverin himself, who had his attacks instantly negated by a puny human.

It was obvious that no dragon, Lord or otherwise, wished to meddle with the affairs of those individuals after the death of the West's Dragon Lord. The rest of the dead Dragon Lord's domain quickly fell apart, and the six individuals took this opportunity to conquer the rest of the region and established a safe haven for humans. This event, and the already rarity of humans within the slave market, caused the price for humans to skyrocket, as every dragon wanted to see if they could breed their own powerful human. It didn't help that humans now flock to the west in search of freedom and safety.

Teverin had felt the world weep at the arrival of such powerful individuals, who stood above even the mightiest race. They were abominations and should not have existed, but their arrival also comes with the appearance of "items as powerful as the world itself", as the Dragon a Emperor called it. The risk was worth the price. Still... Teverin, who could proudly proclaim himself the mightiest warrior dragon in the land, felt that if he were to attack the human who wielded that sword, he would die. This troubled him to no end.

And for some reason, one hundred years after that event occurred... Teverin had the same feeling again. Some thing has happened that caused the world to wail. And he could see it affect the morale of his troops. They, too, felt something had happened. But nevertheless, everyone pushed on.

—

Yasilithi felt a change in the air. He felt... He felt the world scream in pain, and it was an unsettling feeling. He had never experienced this feeling before. The closest he had felt to this was when when he had first witnessed the power of the six so-called "gods", as the humans have come to call them, during the Dragon Lord Summit a century ago. But that was a different feeling. The world wept at their existence, but it didn't wail in pain. He had felt that same feeling again a couple of days ago, but he didn't think much of it until now. And Yasilithi did not like what terrible omen it implied.

He saw silhouettes in the distance. The sun was high in the sky, and he could spot black and red scales. Yasilithi frowned. If that was Teverin's forces, why was there so few? But if those were enemy forces... They numbered too few to be a threat.

Yasilithi called to his comrades below him to stand at attention, and prepare to receive an enemy scouting party. He shot forward, preparing to kill enough dragons so his fellow Knights could muster enough forces in time to repel a second wave. One red dragon was flying faster than the rest. Yasilithi flew towards it, preparing to melt its scales... When he could recognize the dragon. He could recognize Vorun, captain of the Knights and the Night Bearer when he isn't in an offensive raid. He was a powerful dragon, who rivaled Yasilithi in strength, and he felt his stomach tying into a knot when he took one look at Vorun's face. It was a look of panic.

"Yasilithi! I am glad to see you! Retreat! Run, now! They are too powerful!"

"Hold, brother, what are you talking about? Where is Teverin? What happened?"

Vorun gulped, and looked behind him.

"I bring news from the front. They had wiped us out. Would've killed us if Joti didn't sound for the retreat. We... We thought we had killed one, but it got right back up! As if nothing has happened! They are unkillable, Yasilithi, unkillable!"

Yasilithi grasped on to Vorun's face. His claws dug into Vorun's face, but Vorun's scales were thick enough to prevent any damage.

"How? What kind of dragon could do that? And I'll not repeat this again. Where. Is. Teverin?"

Vorun shook his head.

"Not dragons. Humans and other creatures we've never seen before. It's... It's them again, Yasilithi."

"Them? I thought they only stayed in the west. That was the agreement!"

"No, Yasilithi! There were eight of them this time! They slaughtered us!"

Vorun wailed in agony, and charged home, disregarding Yasilithi's question about Teverin.

By now, Imerina had joined him with a couple of other Knights. They watched Vorun race towards the Mountain City with his tail tucked in between his legs.

Imerina gave Yasilithi a questioning look.

"My Lady... It's them. What the Dragon Emperor called 'players'. What the humans call gods."

"...A century has passed without any incident, and they decide to attack us now?"

"No, it's different. There are eight of them this time."

Yasilithi delivered that statement with a somber look.

"By the light of the Sun... May he have mercy on us."

By now, the Twins and Svalinn has reached them, along with only a couple of Knights. They had a look of extreme exhaustion, as if they had been flying non-stop to get here. It appeared that Joti had casted Wild Magic that allowed Vorun to go farther faster to bring the news in advance. There were no signs of the slaves.

Imerina flew forward.

"Where's Teverin?"

They looked at each other, with color draining from their scales. Yasilithi couldn't shake the bad feeling welling from his heart. He didn't want to believe that had happened. It couldn't have happen. Teverin was invincible.

"Svalinn. I ask again. Where's Teverin?"

Her voice trembled. Svalinn shook her head, and her whole body shivered despite the summer heat. She couldn't speak. A mighty Loern dragon, regarded and hailed as a hero amongst the dragon race, was shivering and scared for her own life.

Then the Twins spoke softly in unison.

"He's dead."