On the borders of the Berk Kingdom, the Pleiades of the Azure Sky were housed in the tower that was fused with the mountain. Deldry, Arden and Wallio were outside guarding the tower while Fraudrin was being detained inside.
Fraudrin had finally regained consciousness and found standing before him was none other than Emerald, King Topaz's younger brother. He bore a strong resemblance to Topaz, the only difference was that his beard was longer and he was more muscular.
"I was wondering when you would show up here, Captain of the Pleiades of the Azure Sky, Emerald," Fraudrin growled.
"Hello, Calder, or should I say the demon possessing Calder," said Emerald.
Fraudrin began to take on his surroundings which was nothing more than an empty room.
"This is a magical research building inside Jarth, the remote land that you expelled us," Emerald explained. "That sound familiar? Having predicted the Holy War, King Topaz had this place built in secret, that way even after being sent away from the kingdom I might be able to continue my research on the Demon Race."
"I see," said Fraudrin. "So then what is it exactly you want to ask me about? Surely the younger brother of Topaz has questions."
Emerald and immediately drew his sword and impaled it in Fraudrin's shoulder. The moment the metal touched Fraudrin's skin it immediately began to burn.
"Perhaps at another time," he said coldly.
"You bastard! You'll pay for that!" Fraudrin roared.
"A sword purified for years by Druid prayers must feel quite potent," Emerald noted as smoke began to pour out of the wound.
"If you hurt me, you also hurt your friend's body," Fraudrin reminded.
He then attempted to kick him, there wasn't enough power to knock Emerald back, but it had been enough to free him from the chair he was sitting in. Fraudrin then turned to face him and immediately broke out of his bonds and remove the sword that was still impaled on his shoulder as emerald drew out his second one.
"How foolish, it seems you're determined to have me kill you today," said Fraudrin.
"I am here to prove that you are not invincible," said Emerald. "That even a mere human can defeat your kind, ancient savage Demon. This is all in the name of the greater good. I'm sure that inside you, Calder would gladly lay down his life."
Meanwhile far to the north, Heather was practising the dance that Dagur performed earlier, but she was having problems. She was putting too much power in her dance which easily shattered the ground beneath her.
"How about this?" Heather asked.
"Terrible," said Dagur.
"And how is that different from yours Dagur?" Heather asked.
"Where do I begin?"
"Give it up! You stink!" said the young boy.
"Dagur's dancing was a hundred times better than yours!"
"Shut up!" Heather growled.
The two kids laughed and ran off.
"You made a mad!" said the boy.
Dagur laughed. "Forgive them, it's just the way that kids are sometimes."
Heather then looked at him curiously. "I'm still surprised that you're still alive, but what even more incredible is that your living with some barbarians."
"Sol and Della have had a hard time," Dagur explained as the two kids rushed over to their father who had just come back from fishing. "You see Zalpa's wife passed away when they were still very young and now they looked to me as their older brother."
"I can't believe that you've changed so much, Dagur," said Heather in disbelief. "I mean all that you wanted to do was fight, it's like your different person."
"16 years can change a person, especially whenever living with humans," Dagur pointed out.
Heather nodded. "Good point, that was a terrible day. I truly believe that you had died on that day, but Zalpa came to your rescue, right?"
"Yes, after taking care of my wounds he stayed by my side for three days and nights without any sleep," Dagur explained. "Actually the funny thing is I actually owe my survival to you."
Heather frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You remember a few days earlier that we waged a battle against the barbarians?" Dagur asked. "You spared some of them and allow them to escape."
"Yeah," said Heather unsure where this conversation was going.
"Ironically enough Zalpa was one of those barbarians you spared, if it wasn't for your mercy that I scorned, no if not for your kindness I would be dead and we would never be reunited. So, thank you little sister."
"You're welcome," Heather smiled.
"Now perhaps you can share me with one question, how did you lose 16 years of your memory?" Dagur questioned.
Heather shrugged. "I wish I could tell you, I really do, but I have no idea. The last thing I remember was waking up in a castle in the south. There were some humans that recognised me, but I guess I was too much in a daze to listen."
"Okay, but why were you attacked by those monsters yesterday?" Dagur asked.
Heather then remembered the dark presence she felt when she came face-to-face with both Galand and Monspeet.
"I don't know but the utterly terrified me," said Heather shaking uncontrollably.
Dagur then placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to frighten you. Take it easy we won't talk about this again, okay. Let's just resume your dancing lesson."
Heather calmed down a little. "Sure, but I have to tell you I do really love dancing. Certainly a lot more fun smiling than fighting, don't you think?"
"Then perhaps time I tell you the history of this dance," said Dagur. "According to legend, which was created by the founder of the Giant Race, was so glorious and beautiful that the Earth shook with joy and all that witnessed it overwhelmed. Understand, Heather? This is a sacred dance you're learning, it's not just the manner of moving your arms and legs and leaping around, it is important for one to try and communicate through the Earth with this dance. Listen carefully and calm your soul, feel the Earth with your whole body, the whispering of the insects, the murmur of the trees, the radiance of life. The essence of this dance lies within channelling all those things into one. You understand, don't you?"
Heather just looked at him blankly. "Not even a little bit."
Dagur sighed.
Upon Dagur's suggestion, Heather made her way to the forest in order to be more tune with nature. However, she still didn't understand how she could accomplish such a feat and then decided just to stand there and listen.
"Okay, listen carefully, calm your soul and feel the earth following freely within your entire body," she said closing her eyes.
However, no matter how hard she tried she can hear a single thing.
"Obviously that's not going to work," she sighed. She then immediately sensed something which had a familiar presence of that of Galand and Monspeet. "Wait, what is that? Is it one of those monsters?" She shook her head. "No it's much smaller than that."
Then something blue immediately soared above her dropping flyers, she only had a brief glance of it. It had resembling features of that of a bird, but it didn't look like any bird she had ever seen before and then there was the question of the Flyers dropped.
She grabbed one of them and looked at it carefully. "What's this?"
The creature then just drop flyers below Heather, but across all the neighbouring towns and villages.
Hiccup and the others had managed to acquire one of these flyers.
"'In the coming days a great Fighting Festival will be held in Vaizel and the declared winner of this event will be given the right to have any wish granted,'" Hiccup read.
"Wait a minute, isn't Vaizel that town Heather flattened like a pancake?" Toothless asked.
"Whoever is holding this festival has certainly provided a very tantalising prize," Hiccup noted.
"So you think the Ten Commandments are behind this?"
"No doubt about it, can you think of anyone else that would do something as having Demons to hand out flyers?" Ake asked.
"This sounds too much like a trap to me," said Toothless.
"I agree, we should stay away from that festival," Alvin nodded.
Gilthunder was very conflicted by this. 'Even if it is a trap, I want to be in a tournament like that with Hiccup. Oh, what's the point? There's no way I can just come out and—,'
Ake then placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Gil. You want to be in it, right?" Gilthunder stared at him, wondering how he could have figured that. "You have this excited look on your face so I kind of figured…"
"I know this is a trap, but I'm afraid were going have to take the bait," Hiccup sighed.
"Why?" Alvin asked. "Surely this is all just a ruse to get you to confront them."
"I know, but there are going to be people that are going to take this offer very seriously and all them are going to be weak. I have a very strong feeling that the Commandments will devour the soul the winner or something like that and if they swallow that soul band will give them a massive boost of magical power. Besides, with Eret's magic signature disappearing into thin air were just roaming around the countryside completely blind."
At the ruins of Vaizel, the giant and the boy in vines waited as the Demon messengers returned. They were Blue Demons, more powerful then Grey and Red and they had a strong resemblance of that of a bird.
"Excellent, work everyone," said the boy clapping two of his vines together as the Demons returned. "Thank you for passing out all of those Flyers." He then noticed that they were one Demon short. "One… two… three… wait, I'm missing one. I can understand wanting to run Hog wild in the outside world, but I really wish that he took his job a little more seriously. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to do kill him when he gets back. When it comes to festivals preparation is key."
"A festival you say," said the giant folding his four arms. "I see, so you're still fond of doing things the human way."
"Well, to me it's a lot more efficient then wandering around collecting inferior souls, you know," he shrugged. "Of all the races, humans are the greediest so this is the perfect way to lure them in. Besides, Hiccup is sure to take the bait as well, there's no doubt because the two of us go way back so I know how he thinks."
Heather meanwhile was still trying to perfect the dance that Dagur taught her. So far all she managed to accomplish was scared of you woodland creatures that were busy grazing.
"Sorry if I startled you," she said as she looked down at several deer.
She then continued to dance and this time she found the perfect rhythm and was no longer just waving her arms and legs around. It was like she was allowing the wind to guide her movements and was actually feeling the earth beneath her feet.
'What Dagur said to me was confusing, I didn't understand it at all,' she said to herself as she started to become one with nature. 'But it's fun to dance without a care in the world, I can feel my heart pounding like it's almost skipping a beat. It's so exciting, the plants and trees seem to be rustling with joy, even all the animals have stopped to watch me. A bud just sprouted from a seed.'
She then began to feel something else, almost like a sixth sense, she could feel the earth all around her. 'Huh? Wait a second, my eyes are closed but I can see everything around me so clearly. It's like I've become part of the Earth, like I'm being swallowed up into it.'
She then sensed something sinister and immediately woke out from her trance.
Dagur could sense it too at the Homestead and immediately heard the sounds of Sol and Della.
The two children had been playing near the stream when suddenly they were attacked by a Blue Demon. It was about to finish them off when Dagur appeared and glared down at it.
"Get away from," he snarled.
Within seconds he completely demolished the Demon and immediately grabbed the two kids in his hands. Zalpa and Heather quickly showed up and while they were relieved that the two children were still alive, but the wounds that had been inflicted upon them were severe and what was worse they were coming down with a fever.
They quickly took them back to the Homestead where Zalpa try to conduct a healing potion, but none of the ingredients had any effect on the two children.
"I shouldn't have allow those two to go out on their own," said Dagur furious at himself.
"The same thing could have happened to me," said Zalpa. "I have never seen a monster like that one, this may be a grim sign of things to come."
Heather leaned down towards him. "Zalpa, Sol and Della will be okay, won't they?"
Zalpa had a grim look on his face. "Their wounds are deep, I'm not sure how long they can last."
"Oh, no."
Dagur then rose to his feet and the two of them looked at him. "Zalpa, please, look after those two."
"Dagur, now where do you think you're going?" Zalpa demanded.
"To Vaizel."
The two of them stared at him.
"Why go there?" Heather asked. She then remember the flyers that were dropped earlier. "Wait, is this about that strange flyer? The one about some tournament granting any wish the winner desires? Come on, it's too suspicious to be true."
"Listen to what Heather is telling you," Zalpa pleaded. "Only a God can grant wishes like that. It would take a miracle."
Dagur clenched his fist. "I know that, but right now that God, miracle, or whatever is the only hope we have."
"Don't go, Dagur, please. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Now I have the chance to repay my debt to you," said Dagur as he looked down at him. "If there's even a chance that I can rescue those two, I'll take it no matter the risk."
He then began to walk off.
"Dagur, wait, come back here!" Heather cried.
Zalpa looked at Heather. "Heather, take that battle hammer and go. Make sure he doesn't kill himself and make sure that you both get back here."
Heather nodded and grabbed Gideon and then ran off after her brother.
"Oh, God of the Earth and found of the giant race Drole, I humbly ask you for strength in the battle to come," he said
In Vaizel the two Commandments were still waiting for the arrival of their participants.
"Not long now," said the boy covered in vines with a smile. "I can feel them coming, a flood of powerful souls are making their way here from far and wide. Now that is a fact of advertising." He then looked up at his compatriot. "Isn't this exciting, Drole."
The window then began to blow the cloth on the Giants to reveal his face, he had extremely long brown hair and his left eye was completely fused together with his face.
Meanwhile Deldry and the other members of the Pleiades of the Azure Sky were waiting outside of the research building.
"Standing guard is so lame," said Adren as he began playing around with a black spell bead. "I want to fight the Demon, not him."
"Sir Emerald ordered us to wait outside until he gave the signal, remember?" Deldry scolded. "And will you stop playing around with the incantation orb?"
"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to tell me too…" he said and then he dropped the spell beard.
"Idiot!" Deldry cried.
Fortunately, Waillo had fast reflexes and he was able to capture the orb before it smashed on the ground.
"Good thing you have fast reflexes," said Deldry with relief.
Waillo then gave her the orb. "Perhaps you should hold onto it for now on."
"Good idea," she said and took the orb. She then quickly turned on Adren and glared at him. "You moron! Look, if this orb had shattered there would have been hell to pay!"
"Huh, my bad," said Adren.
"'My bad?' Seriously?" she glared furiously.
Meanwhile inside the research building, both Emerald and Fraudrin crossed blades unleashing a powerful shockwave the moment they clashed. They then continue to swing their swords at one another and it appeared they were perfectly matched.
Emerald then tapped his chest with two of his fingers and then performed several movements with them. "Now, Dead Man's Revenge!"
A mark then appeared on Fraudrin's chest. "What did you do to me?" Then suddenly appearing in front of him were hundreds upon hundreds of Dragon Knights, some of them he recognised as people he had killed. "No, how can this be? I'm certain that I killed you! All of you!"
Then suddenly cuts appeared throughout his entire body as if the vengeful spirit struck him.
"Who was at that appeared before you? How many dead men did you see?" said Emerald. "Whoever receives that Holy Symbol is possessed by the ghosts of those who murdered and they will keep targeting him until his death."
Fraudrin glared at him. "What a tawdry magical power, in that case let me add you to the dead men haunting me!" He then raised his sword and pointed it straight at an Emerald. "Siklen Skewer!"
However, his attacked didn't appear much to his confusion. Emerald merely cracked his neck and took several steps to the side and that's when his attack was launched.
'Why was the activation delayed?' he pondered.
"Magical power is like music," said a voice. Fraudrin turned and found Deathpierce approaching him. "It has dynamics… tempo… range… since I can control these any magical attack in my presence is pointless."
Fraudrin narrowed his eyes. "You… your Deathpierce!"
Deathpierce then stood by Emerald's side. "Checkmate, demon."
Fraudrin then immediately charged towards the wall, he clearly planned to smash through it in order to escape. However, instead he struck a magical force field and was bounced right back in it in take them long to realise the magic that was involved.
"No, it can't be! We're in a Perfect Cube!" he roared.
"Only my subordinates outside can break this spell," said Emerald.
Deldry and the others were still waiting for the signal, but there was no telling how long that could take.
"Hey, I hear there's going to be a great Fighting Festival in Vaizel so would you say that we all go?" Adren asked. He then looked at Deldry with a smile. "There might be some hot guys there so how about it Deldry."
Deldry sighed. "That's not the worst idea ever. Okay, but not until we are done with guard duty."
"If you want you can head out now," said a voice and they looked up and found Dogedo approaching them.
"Dogedo?" Deldry blinked. "You're already done reporting everything back to the King?"
"Yeah, so I can take over for you if you want to go to that festival. It's fine, just hand over the incantation orb."
Inside Fraudrin began to laugh much to Emerald and Deathpierce confusion. They then looked up and saw that the Perfect Cube was beginning to crack as the spell was beginning to break down.
"Why are there cracks in the Perfect Cube?" Deathpierce asked. "We haven't given the signal yet."
The Cube then shattered and the doors opened and they saw Dogedo entering the room.
"It's Dogedo. Why did you cast Absolute Cancel without permission?"
Emerald narrowed his eyes. "Wait, something is not right."
"Hey, Fraudrin what are you doing in a place like this?" said Dogedo as his body began to swell. His voice then began to change, it sounds like two old women speaking at once. "A tower built on rising earth… no, rather than earth a giant tree turn to coal after many years. Two sources of feeble power, humans are… I sense something very unpleasant from one of them."
Soon towering above them was the dark mist Demon with many faces.
"No," said Deathpierce horrified. "T-that's impossible."
"This excessive level of magical power, here can't be any ordinary Demon," Emerald deduced.
"Allow me to introduce to you to Greyroad of Pacifism," said Fraudrin as he stood next to the new arrival. "A good friend and one of the Ten Commandments."
Unaware that they had been tricked, Deldry, Arden and Wallio were making their way to the Fighting Festival in Vaizel.
"Are you sure that you didn't need to tell Sir Emerald about our plans face-to-face?" Wallio asked.
"Dogedo will tell them for us, it's no big deal," Deldry assured.
They then suddenly turn round the corner and to their shock they found Dogedo walking towards them.
"Hey, wasn't expecting to see you guys on the road!" he yelled as he waved towards them. "All done with guard duty?"
Their eyes immediately widened when they realised that they had just been had.
Meanwhile Emerald and Deathpierce were face-to-face with two Commandments, not very good odds.
"Now then… what do you say that we start over and battled to against two?" Fraudrin asked.
Deathpierce was ready to fight, but then to his surprise and would immediately sheathed his sword.
"I'll allow you to escape this time," he said.
Deathpierce stared at him. "Sir Emerald… What are you talking about? They're within range of my power so I can essentially seal theirs, we have the advantage! This is our only chance to defeat them both!"
"You must calm down and think Deathpierce," said Emerald. "We may very well have a means of killing them, but no way of capturing them."
Fraudrin merely smiled.
Emerald than looked up at Greyroard. "He said that its Commandment is Pacifism, if we were to destroy Calder right now than the Commandment would retaliate and we would be cursed."
Deathpierce then finally understood the realisation of their situation, even if they did defeat the two of them with all for nought. He then reluctantly lowered his blade wishing that he had taken care of Fraudrin earlier.
Fraudrin smiled at the two of them. "You're fairly quick witted for a couple of old fools," he said tapping his head. "More importantly I think you're still holding out on me, hmm?"
Emerald just remain completely silent.
"Until next time," said Fraudrin as he and Greyroad made their leave. "Deathpierce, you seem to think that you can fight us on equal ground by using your ability and suppressing our magical powers."
Deathpierce smiled at him. "Am I wrong about that?"
Fraudrin then unleashed a powerful surge of demonic power, which was completely off the charts. "Next time I'll fight you without holding back."
Deathpierce stared at him open eyed, it soon dawned on him that even with his powers of suppressing magic that Fraudrin was still powerful enough to eliminate them both. Emerald on the other hand in look entirely surprised, he clearly anticipated this.
Eventually both Fraudrin and Greyroad exited the facility and soon came face-to-face with the other members of Pleiades of the Azure Sky.
"Calder," Deldry gasped.
"W-what? How is he able to walk out of this place?" Adren stared.
"More importantly what's that monster behind him?" Dogedo asked gesturing to Greyroad.
"What happened to Sir Emerald and Deathpierce?" said Wallio.
Deldry narrowed her eyes at Fraudrin. "Calder, how dare you come out of there without my express—"
Fraudrin looked at her. "Well, look at that, it seems your vulgar little love spell has been broken. Must have been when Absolute Cancel was cast on an incantation orb you activated."
He then suddenly vanished and reappeared in front of Fraudrin and starter through the chest with his sword before she had time to react. He then pulled the sword right out of her and she collapsed.
"What have you done to her?" Wallio demanded.
"By the way, here's a message from Calder inside of me," said Fraudrin as he walked off. "'Don't ever do anything like that, unless their worthy.'"
He then turned his eyes towards Emerald and Deathpierce as they emerged from the research building.
"Before I go all share one last thing to you," he said. "I'm not actually one of the true Ten Commandments. To be more precise I must substitute, I don't know what happened to the other one, he was more than tinker than a fighter creating things beyond your dreams. Due to a certain set of circumstances he vanished without a site and has not been missing, but I sensed his existence during the Battle of the Royal Capital or at least a trace of it and the same when I fought against her and Hiccup in the Kingdom of Danafor 16 years ago.
"The moment I laid eyes on her my heart skipped a beat, because she perished 3000 years ago. During the Holy War she was possibly the strongest human ever to exist and utterly fearless, the during the final days she fell in battle. Now I suggest you listen carefully, because her name is Astrid Hofferson."
