They stepped carefully across the abandoned dragway. Moordryid had already bailed them, leaving them with the minimal indications of where to go and what to avoid, although most of them were most vague, much to Artha's and Kitt's chagrin. Both Beau and Wyldfyr were on the look out, ready to dart at full speed should they sense danger.
"Why do I have the feeling that he lead us into a trap?" Kitt whispered, just loud enough to be heard by Artha, and hopefully only him.
"Yeah, I don't really have a good feeling about this either." Artha whispered back.
They kept advancing slowly and carefully, tensing at the slightest noise coming from around them. Little would they know that their cautious approach only gave more time to Word to do what would most likely be irreversible.
Word finally looked at the monitors one last time. All seemed fine, but this time he knew that very little could go wrong. A contingency plan wouldn't hurt though, he mentally noted as he summoned a few wraiths with the console.
There, much better, Word applauded himself mentally.
He gave one last glance at Geeld, at the way she was now. The perfect balance of traits of a Pack-class and a Magma-class. Legs and tail of a magma-class, giving her good speed and balance. Head and body of a pack-class, providing with a notable degree of intelligence and adaptability. Indeed a fine specimen, but a few 'tweaks' are in order, Word silently mused.
He gave himself one more moment, this time to imagine what she'd become, but shook his head as he failed. He just pushed the button needed to activate the draconium lens, and then waited.
Eventually, Artha, Kitt and their dragons reached the abandoned entrance that Moordryid pointed them at. It was then that they realized why no one kept track of that dragway anymore.
As they turned the corner to face the entrance, what they found was a huge gap in the road. Of the road only stood the broken top of the pillar that supposedly was it's support. Didn't help either that the entrance seemed to have been sealed with green draconium plates.
"Great!" Kitt burst out, throwing up her hands in surrender. "The road's busted and the entrance is blocked!"
"Well, we've gone too far to go back now. We've got to find a way across." Artha said.
"Any ideas?" Wyldfyr snorted to Beau, who looked ahead and the surroundings. "So?"
"Silence, I'm thinking." Beau hissed to Wyldfyr.
But Artha beat him to it.
"I've got an idea." Artha said, as he checked Beau's aero and thruster gears.
"Really? What's the plan then?" Kitt asked, watching as Artha intently controlled the gear.
"We could try and mag-jump across the gap, and turn on both aero and thruster gear when we're starting to lose momentum."
"Artha, you do realize that if something goes wrong there will be no safety net for us, right?" Kitt commented as Artha jumped back into Beau's saddle.
"Have you got any better ideas?" Artha glared her, crossing his arms.
First was Artha. Beau took some space away from the broken edge, only to then sprint at full speed towards it. He charged, and in a single burst of energy he pushed himself and Artha as high as he could. As they began loosing vertical momentum, Artha activated both aero and thruster gear, speeding them towards the other part of the road. At the last second Artha deactivated the gears, and they landed on the other side of the road with a loud thump.
Then it was Kitt's time. As Wyldfyr backed off, they both were unsure if this would work. After all they never tried to mag-jump.
"Come on, Wyldfyr. Geeld's waiting for us." Kitt whispered to Wyldfyr. It was all he needed to hear.
He darted forward, charging up his own burst. Just as they were only a couple steps from the edge he let the burst hit the ground, propelling himself and Kitt high in the air. Perhaps a bit too high. As they lost vertical speed, Kitt activated both gears, like Artha did. As they flew forward, Kitt deactivated the gear once they were on top of the intact road section. Cearly they had miscalculated a few things, and when they landed they skidded forward quite a few meters, colliding with the green draconium seal.
"Kitt! Are you okay!?" Artha called as he and Beau approached them.
"Yeah, at least we know that the entrance is indeed sealed." Kitt joked as she rubbed her head. Despite the helmet, it was still quite the blow.
"Ha. Ha." Wyldfyr snorted as he stood up.
Artha reached for Kitt, and helped her on her feet. She was just about to thank him when a thundering roar echoed from far deep within the citadel.
"What was that?" Kitt asked, honestly scared.
"I don't know, but I'd hate to think what it might be." Artha said as he hurried to Beau. "Come on! We must bust this seal!"
Then they charged their mag-blasts, and started pelting the green draconium, the green material slowly heating up.
"Well, if it isn't a satisfactory result?" Word mused, watching the monitors who showed the readouts of Geeld's status. Except it wasn't Geeld anymore.
Instead of a small golden dragon, now stood a fully grown adult, the gold that elegantly adorned its hide, substituted by a deep pulsating dark violet. Spikes had grown along the tail's length, growing an extra length towards the tail tip, precluding the need or the possibility of any tail gear. Its claws had grown long and sharp, just like the teeth in its jaws.
"I'm most impressed." Word said to the snarling dragon that stood in the cage.
It was snarling and growling, the ordeal of the transformation having proved to be quite demanding on the dragon. Not that Word cared.
"How about a reward for your participation, hmm?" Word called, pressing a button. The arm with the wraith gear lowered, but the dragon couldn't mag it through the cage, so with a lever Word raised the cage's upper part. As it began lifting, the dragon watched. Its eyes, originally colored like amber, now bore a clear violet glow.
As the cage lifted above head level, the gear on the robotic arm was charged and sent towards the dragon's head , who roared as it felt the gear taking its effect on it. The gear unfolded, and together with the typical triangular head piece and eye covers, a black collar appeared at the base of the dragon's neck, which very closely resembled more a pendant than a piece of mind-control technology. After a few moments of struggle, the dragon calmed down, and moved off the cage's bottom plate. It walked towards Word with a cold, mechanical fashion. Word raised his clothed hand, and the new wraith stopped.
"Very well, my wraith queen." Word said as he approached the wraith. "You will obey me, and only me, am I clear?"
The wraith struggled, but then managed to answer.
"You. Don't. Control me." The wraith growled, struggling as the gear tried to overcome its willpower.
"Now, now." Word said, motioning his gloved finger in a 'no' gesture.
Before the wraith could see it, that same finger pressed a button on the console.
The lights on the wraith gear glowed more intensively, and the wraith let out a pained, screeching roar.
"You will submit to my will, wraith!" Word said, forcefully as the wraith regained its composure.
"Yes. Lord Paynn." The wraith hissed.
"Very well." Word muttered, a pleased smirk emerging on his face. "Remember, wraith. Like I created you, so I can undo you."
"Yes. My master." The wraith growled as it bowed to Word.
"Now, my wraith queen, go to the armory, and equip yourself. I want you to go and hunt the Dragon Booster and his Dragon of Legend." Word commanded. Slowly, the wraith stood up, and slowly walked away.
Just at the same time, Moordryid entered the laboratory, and almost had to dive out of the way as he saw a rather big wraith, unlike any he had ever seen, snapping its jaws at him.
"Moordryid, what brings you here? As you can see I am somewhat busy." Word said with clear annoyance. Moordryid stood near the lab's door, frozen, as the wraith kept growling at him, the sharp knife-like teeth only mere inches away from him. To Moordryid felt like ages, but what in reality was a few seconds later his father commanded the wraith through his console to leave Moordryid alone.
As the wraith silently walked out, Moordryid couldn't shake the feeling that he had already seen that dragon.
"A truly magnificent specimen, isn't she?" Word mused out loud, causing Moordryid to snap out of his reverie.
"Yes, it is." Moordryid muttered.
"You know, I was just about to call you. What a pleasant coincidence." Word said, putting away his tools and research notes, safe from prying eyes like his son's.
"What for, father?" The young man asked as he walked down the bridge towards the center of the laboratory.
"I want you and your crew to create a diversion. Attract the Dragon Booster, once he arrives, let my wraiths take over from there."
"What kind of diversion?" Moordryid asked. He was afraid of what his father had in mind, and he wasn't wrong in the slightest.
Artha, Kitt and their dragons managed to break through the seal at the abandoned entrance, but quickly enough they lost themselves in the depths of the Paynn's citadel.
As they came to a crossing, they stopped, unsure of where to go.
"Now where do we go?" Kitt asked Artha, who was looking left and right. Despite Moordryid's indications, the lack of any signs or reference points inside the citadel's levels made navigation somewhat difficult.
"I don't know." Artha said, as he continued to look at the only three possible directions. "Let's go left."
Just as they crossed out into the hallway, they saw a wraith idly and slowly walking towards them. Faster than they could even realize, Beau and Wyldfyr already back pedaled into the smaller hallway they had just left. The tension became palpable to the two riders and their dragons, as the wraith slowly walked past them, not even noticing them. It was then that it occurred to them that it was no common wraith.
It was just slightly bigger than Wyldfyr, although it had much different physical characteristics. It's legs where indeed strong looking, but lacked the trained tone that Wyldfyr had. The wraith's tail was easily as long as Beau's body was, and despite it's thin appearance it swayed with constant and regular movements, unfazed by the rest of the wraith's movements. Being a biped, the wraith had two short arms at it front, which despite their lacking length carried three extremely sharp and menacing claws each. The most striking feature, though, was the tail's spikes. They started from the tail's base, barely an inch long, and reached all the way to the tail's tip, reaching almost a forearm's length with ease. Each spike was shaped like a blade, and was just as sharp.
As the group of riders and dragons kept observing the wraith, it suddenly stopped, turning to it's left, where a large door opened. With the same speed with which the wraith arrived, so it entered the room.
"Did you see that?" Kitt whispered to Artha, hoping that there would be no other patrolling wraiths.
"Yes. Whatever it is, It's not looking good." Artha said.
Once more, they pulled out of the minor hallway and into the larger one, slowly advancing towards the door the wraith had entered. It was a large, reinforced door, bearing the writing 'Armory and gear depot'. As they approached the door, it slid open, revealing the room's interior.
Large rows of gear of all kinds, shapes and levels, were organized on vertically-placed mag-racks. As the group silently spied the wraith dragon, they watched as it magged some of the gear on itself.
"What is it doing?" Artha whispered to Kitt, which watched intently the gear that the wraith dragon was taking.
"I don't know, some of that gear I've never seen before." Kitt whispered back. She tried to get a better look, but the wraith was too far and she couldn't get a good look. She was about to give up, when she came up with an idea. She reached for under her saddle, and grabbed a camera. As she silently turned it on, she snapped as many zoomed-in pictures as she could.
"What are you doing?" Artha whispered, annoyed that she was wasting time taking pictures.
"Shut up!" Kitt hissed, turning around in annoyance herself. In the motion, a drakkal coin slipped from her back pockets, and touched the floor with a loud clinking noise.
The wraith turned around, it's masked eyes fixed on the intruders, and let out a loud screeching.
"Intruders!"