Dragon Princess of the Dawn

by DelayedInspiration

After Miquella and Melania are born afflicted, Marika and Radagon try for a third child, and they beget Marina, the youngest demigod. Her life is a happy one, filled with love and family, but that is upended one day when she falls into another world where she is reborn as the daughter of Poseidon. She will return home, however, but the only thing that awaits her there is pain...

2. The Dragonlord Beyond Time

Epithet

Alright, since the Reviews were actually equal at the time I decided to cut off the race, I decided to go with this one!

Great start so far, though I don't know if the Guest Reviewers are all the same person or actually multiple people, but I'm not complaining. Thanks for the Reviews!

And for all the people who were like, "Wow, this story is actually happy," don't worry. Gotta send Marina to the PJO world, and then bring her back for the Shattering.

That's where the fun begins.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Elden Ring

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Upon Gransax's death, the gigantic dragon settled over a decent portion of Leyndell, his body turned to stone, and his huge spear remained buried in the city. As to why no one ever removed the dragon's corpse and his weapon, especially since there were people like Radahn and Marina with their gravity magic, and Marika with her goddess powers, that was a great question.

But anyway.

Following the battle, Marina's mega golem stood tall over the city, and there was much cheering and celebrating.

When the princess descended to the masses, she was immediately met by her mother. "When did you build that?"

"Oh…uh…you know. Over the years, a little bit at a time."

"Did you make more?" Marika asked.

"Not any that size, but I did repair a whole bunch of the other golems."

"How many?"

Marina thought about it. "Yes."

"Well," Queen Marika said, "we'll need all of them."

And all of them were needed.

The War with the Ancient Dragons was a long and brutal one, since the dragons were many and mighty. Their red lightning was powerful, and it was never put to greater use than in the hands of one specific dragon, one that would earn the name of the Mightiest Boulderstone: Dread Fortissax.

Just as white and gold as the other Ancient Dragons, Fortissax distinguished himself by using twin lightning stakes. He was known for rearing up on his hind legs, summoning twin bolts of red lightning from the heavens, and those bolts turned into a couple of huge forks, and he would slam them into the earth to obliterate anything that was close enough.

Fortissax also had a younger sister of a dragon, Lansseax, who was known for her lightning glaive.

Of course, on top of the Ancient Dragons there were also the Lesser Dragons, those without arms and scales, but instead had wings and tough, leathery bodies. In truth, by anatomy, they were actually wyverns instead of dragons, but no one really cared to make that distinction. The Lesser Dragons were all mothered by Greyoll, a gigantic specimen in her own right, but still not as big as Gransax.

As the war progressed, many things happened.

Dragon hunting became an official profession in the Lands Between. It was great for Leyndell, meant a little bit of the pressure was off, but it lead to other problems. Typically, when one hunted and killed an animal in these medieval days, the whole animal was put to use. Bones, organs, blood—all of it. The same was true of dragons. Dragon hide made for great, lightweight armor, and dragon bone made for great weapons.

Then there was the heart.

Even after killing the dragon, the heart still beat without stopping for a reason no one could discern. While intriguing, that wasn't really a problem until one guy said to himself, "What does it taste like?", and then proceeded to roast the dragon heart over an open fire, added some garlic, herbs, and a little bit of olive oil, and ate the damn thing. Since nothing immediately adverse happened, it became a path of scientific inquiry to see what would happen to those who consumed dragon hearts in what would come to be known as Dragon Communion.

At first, nothing.

Then, after consuming three hearts, a person's eyes became like a dragon's. The round pupils became vertical slits, the iris turned a bright yellow, and the sclera turned black. In tandem with the changing of the eyes, came the changing of the diet, in that an insatiable hunger for dragon hearts consumed the devourer, and their humanity was lost.

Fingers became claws, teeth became fangs, skin became hard and scaly, then came horrific growth into a large, pathetic creature. They were called wyrms, as they were cursed to crawl on their bellies because of their tiny limbs and spindly wings. They had black scales and many rows of teeth in their snouts, and their version of breathing fire was bastardized compared to a real dragon: instead of actually breathing fire, they just vomited lava all over themselves like an infant's spit-up.

Yes, truly pathetic creatures.

While Dargon Communion was certainly a sin and a blight upon the war, a different event evened things out: friendship.

Where humans became cursed as ugly imitations of dragons, dragons became friends to humans.

Ranni bested a Lesser Dragon called Adula on his fourth assault on Raya Lucaria. The ferocious dragon had devoured so many Glintstone sorcerers that Glintstone had started to grow on his body, and he could breathe spells. A dragon's fiery breath was something to be scared of, certainly, but there was something else about a dragon firing off Glintstone Comets from low altitude.

Still, Adula fell to Ranni's might, and in exchange for his life, the dragon swore the oath of a knight to Ranni.

This probably would not have happened if Godwyn had not first bested Fortissax in an epic battle of lightning, gold against red, and instead of slaying the Mightiest Boulderstone, offered friendship. A friendship that was accepted by the Ancient Dragon, and brought the end of the war closer to the horizon.

Closer, but not yet there.

That wouldn't come until Marina made her own draconic friend.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ranni gets a dragon," pouted the princess, "and Godwyn gets a dragon, but the only dragon I was ever able to talk to is now a giant rock sitting on top of someone's house!"

"Yes, dear," Marika said, not really paying attention to her daughter's complaining as she poured over a map. "Unfortunately, we all can't have dragons for a house."

Marina frowned, spun on her heel, and jumped out the window. Gravity magic had her flying through the air with no real aim, and before she really even knew, she'd flown off the edge of Altus and was absentmindedly flying over the bay in the middle of the continent. As luck would have it, so too was a lone Ancient Dragon.

Marina grinned and flew right up to it. "Salutations!"

The dragon balked, slamming its flying brakes as it flapped its wings and came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the air.

"Do you want to be my friend?" Marina asked.

The dragon stared at her in utter disbelief.

"I mean, my big brother Godwyn befriended Fortissax, and my big sister Ranni-"

"Godwyn is your kin?" the dragon interrupted, suddenly excited and intrigued. It had a feminine voice like Lansseax. "As in Godwyn the Golden?"

Marina nodded eagerly. "He taught me how to use his golden lightning. Watch!"

She clapped her hands together, and a bolt of golden electricity sparked and crackled between her palms when she moved them apart. She grabbed the bolt in her right hand and flung it to the sea below. It struck with a clap of thunder and a plume of water.

The dragon had stars in her eyes. "Amazing…! What is your name, little one?"

"I'm not that little," Marina huffed.

"You are much smaller than I am, therefore you are the little one."

"At least I'm prettier."

"I am a dragon. I'm not meant to be pretty. I am meant to be strong and ferocious."

"I'm stronger and ferociouser."

"That is not even a word."

"Well, I said it, therefore it's now a word. I have invented a new word!"

"…you are touched in the head."

"So I have been told. Can we be friends?"

"If we are to be friends, knowing each other's name is a good place to start."

"I am Marina, daughter of Queen Marika the Eternal and Elden Lord Radagon."

That gave the Ancient Dragon pause. Just like the name Godwyn was known, so to was Golemmaker Marina, the one who made the small army of stone golems with bows and arrows powerful enough to blast dragons right out of the sky, and halberds strong enough to smash a dragon's body.

"Why do you want to be my friend? How do you know that I am not deceiving you, and will strike you down the moment you turn your back, or will use you to infiltrate your capital and bring even more calamity than Gransax?"

"Well, I killed Gransax with my Mega Golem, and I've fought other Ancient Dragons—and Lesser Dragons—before. I'll kill you if you try anything."

"My name is Marsinax, and I will be your friend."

"Really?!"

Marsinax nodded, and became pensive. "I am not well-liked amongst my kin. I never wanted to go to war with you in the first place, and that was not an opinion that found favor with our lord. In fact, I was flying to get away from the others because I could stand them."

"I see," Marina said sympathetically. "You have a lord?"

Marsinax nodded. "The great dragonlord Placidusax. He is the Elden Lord from before the Greater Will came to this world."

Marina's eyes widened. "Wow~….I take it this war has been his attempt at reclaiming his title?"

"I suspect so, yes."

"You suspect?"

"In truth, the lord did not tell us why we were to attack, only that were to do so. Gransax went first."

"Oh…hey, Marsinax? Do you want the war to end?"

"I do not relish the sites of my kin being torn apart and turned into clothing. Or food."

"Think you could take me to Placidusax so we can talk? I don't like seeing my people turned extra crispy."

Marsinax stared at Marina, and Marina stared at Marsinax.

"…I suppose the worst thing that could happen is that we both die," the Ancient Dragon decided.

"So you'll help me?"

"Yes."

"Yay!"

Marina cheered and rushed forward, hugging her new friend around as much of her neck as she could. Marsinax awkwardly reached up with her arm and patted the demigoddess on the back.

And just like that, Marina had befriended a dragon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"No."

"But Mooooooom!"

"No."

"But-"

"No." Marina opened her mouth one more time, and Marika brought out the hammer. That mouth quickly shut. "I do not care if there is some prehistoric dragonlord that is commanding the dragons. You will not be going to talk to him, and that is final. If you continue arguing with me, you will spend the rest of this blasted war in your room, with your nose in the corner, and your hands under your bottom. Am. I. Clear?"

"…what would I do about the bathroom, though?" Marina blinked, now distracted by the scenario.

"The servants would bring you a bucket and linens, undress you, sit you on the bucket, and then remove it once you were finished and wiped yourself. All with your nose still in the corner."

Marina's nose wrinkled. "You would have servants standing behind me in my room while I pooped in a bucket?"

"Yes," Marika answered instantly, having not broken eye contact with her daughter since this conversation took its weird turn.

"Yuck," Marina said.

"Then unless you want to be pooping in buckets for however much longer this war lasts, you will not be doing anything remotely related to going to confront the dragonlord. Understood?"

"Yes, Mother."

Sufficiently cowed, Marina sulked away.

Marika turned back to what she was doing, which happened to be a discussion with Godwyn and Ranni since they also had draconic companions. They both looked disturbed and disgusted by their mother's threat.

"You wouldn't really-" Ranni started, only for Marika to silence her.

"I'll have you bring the buckets and stand behind her to make sure her nose stays in the corner. If you would have any objection to that, your own nose can occupy a corner, and I'll have servants bring you your own buckets."

Since Godwyn and Ranni had a sense of dignity, they said nothing else on the subject.

When their audience was ended and they had left their mother's presence, Godwyn asked, "How long until Marina leaves?"

"If she has not already left, she will be gone by sundown."

"Think Mother knows?"

"Of course she does."

"Think she will deliver on her threat?"

"Only if Marina comes back alive."

"Let us that does not come to pass, then, shall we?"

Ranni smirked. "Indeed not. I would rather not have to bring her any buckets for her toileting needs."

"Most certainly. I don't think I could tolerate the stench."

"I do remember a night many years ago that exotic food was brought from a distant Land. It disagreed so strongly with Marina that we had to clear out the whole floor, and the one above and below."

Godwyn the Golden became Godwyn the Green just from the sheer memory of that night.

Ranni didn't look much better.

"Not even the Greater Will can discern how something so small and cute can produce something so putrid," Godwyn cringed.

Ranni nodded in agreement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Marina did indeed leave Leyndell by sundown, but not upon the back of Marsinax to go confront this mysterious Placidusax. No, she actually went to Sellia with her two swords, the Carian Knight sword and the Sword of Night and Flame, and a number of shards and fragments from the humongous Gransax spear that a lot of people were starting to call the "Bolt of Gransax," because why not.

The reason for this was because Sellia was home to a masterful swordsmith that hailed from the Land of Reeds. His name was Honjo, a man in his middle years with greying hair and tough hands, and he was the one that helped Radahn forge his huge curved swords out of black steel. Now Marina wanted his help with her own unique weapons.

She walked right into Honjo's shop and unceremoniously dropped her sword and a large pile of dragon spear shards. "Hey."

Honjo leaned around the pile of deadly metal so he could look Marina in the eye. "Hey."

"I need some new swords, please."

"And you want me to make them from all of this junk?"

"Uh-huh."

"What even is all of this?"

"That's the legendary Sword of Night and Flame, that would be one of the nineteen Carian Knight swords, and all the other stuff would be shards and fragments from the Bolt of Gransax."

Honjo stared at all this, then stared at Marina. "You want me to break down two of the rarest swords in all the Lands…and make two new swords using their pieces and the pieces from a dragon's weapon?"

"In this shape, yeah." Marina produced a parchment with the designs she wanted the swords to be in.

Honjo stared at them. "I will…see what I can do."

Marina brightened. "Thanks, Honjo!"

She gave him a big hug and left.

Honjo sighed despondently. "If I were a younger man and she wasn't royalty."

When the swordsmith was done, having to keep tears at bay as he broke down the masterful Carian swords for material per the princess's commission, he presented her with dual xiphos swords made in the likeness of King Troy's sword. They had no cross guard, but instead the motif of two dragon heads inlaid along the edge, their mouths opening upwards towards the tip of the blade. The blades themselves were gleaming silver, a stark contrast to Radahn's black steel swords, but Hanjo had inlaid them with gold flame designs coming from the dragons' mouths and up to the tip using the Gransax shards, and running down the middle of the flat was a lightning bolt pattern. The dragons themselves were gold, and their "bodies" spiraled around the white grips to coil together at the pommels. At the junction of the dragons, where you could say their heart was at, were blue Glintstones.

Silver and gold with a touch of blue.

Marina honestly didn't like the blue Glintstone as she felt it offset the color scheme, so, since this was Sellia, she went out and found a couple of purple Glintstones and replaced the blue ones for a much better aesthetic fit. Which also gave her gravity magic a big boost.

Of course, Marina's new swords were more than just beautiful weapons. They were deadly beautiful weapons. Being forged from the shards of Gransax's bolt, they were naturally imbued with the red lightning of the Ancient Dragons. Further, being fixed with Glintstones, they were also natural catalysts for sorceries, though this was unnecessary given that Marina's power was so great she didn't need a catalyst for any magic. Her whole body was a catalyst.

More than having lightning and magic, her swords has two other abilities: the first was that when she held the pommels together, the coiled tails unraveled and then coiled together with the other tails, forming a singular weapon; this unity made the handles and blades longer, and Marina dubbed this new weapon never before seen in the Lands Between the "twinblade," and took great pride in having the only one. The second ability was that Honjo was a genius not only with making weapons, but with magic; he imbued Marina's xiphos swords with the power to, for lack of a better word, absorb the unique abilities of other weapons.

That was going to be much more relevant later, and it's going to be fun.

Somewhat humorously, even though Marina had made the first twinblade, she had no idea how to use it, which led to her having to come up with a brand-new series of techniques and styles. Luckily she had this dragon companion that was more than eager to help her figure it out by kicking her ass.

As it turned out, Ancient Dragons could take human form.

Marsinax's human form was a woman in her early twenties with a wild glint in her slitted eyes, a wild glint that was accentuated by her fanged smile. Her hair was white as snow, and her skin had a golden tint. Her physique was toned and athletic, with a jealousy-inducing figure of curves, a bubble butt, and fun-sized breasts.

Marina was just fine with her smaller chest, because she was just fine in not sharing Ranni's back pain thanks to her melons.

Marsinax proved an adept combatant even in human form with her red lightning and other storm-related powers. Turning into a huge thundercloud that crackled with deadly electricity was a particular favorite of hers, and a close second was her teleportation technique where she burst into a cloud and reappeared close by, often with claws of lightning adorning her fingers.

Poor Marina seemed cursed to always be the littlest sister, because Marsinax quickly adopted all the energy of the mean big sister than enjoyed tormenting her little in a loving way. Loving in that she enjoyed pounding Marina into the dirt.

Granted, that was actually a lot harder than what written words made it sound like, because Marina didn't know just how to fight, but how to kill.

And she'd been killing dragons for a while now.

Anyway, after some time, Marina perfected her twinblade technique, and with duplication magic, she could make a perfect replica of her twinblade and have two of the WMDs. Fully functioning replica, even, but she could only make one replica of a thing at a time, and keeping the replica around cost mana. The point of making a second twinblade was that she could dual wield them, which led to several new techniques.

Marsinax asked her little sister what the names of her swords were.

"Their names?" Marina asked, looking at her sword. "Uh…no idea. I haven't thought about it."

"Hmmm…how about Princess Marina's Edges of Annihilation?"

"That's way too much of a mouthful, though," Marina said with a scrunched face.

"The Thronglers?"

"The what?"

"The Dragon's Teeth?"

Marina thought about that. "You know, that sounds really cool."

Marsinax beamed. "Happy I could help! Ready to help me betray my own kind by confronting my lord for the sake of bringing an end to the war and peace between the races?"

Marina nodded. "We need to be quick. I don't want my mom to lock me in my room and make me poop in a bucket because she won't let me leave to use the bathroom."

Marsinax had no idea what to say to that, so she just nodded. "Yes, let's prevent…that."

She took her dragon form, Marina hopped upon her neck, and she took to the skies with a flap of her wings. She turned to the south and flew off, intending to reach the bay and then turn east.

In Leyndell, Marika was looking for her daughter, and she ended up finding Miquella.

"Where is your little sister?"

Miquella turned to face her, expression neutral. "I am unaware of her current whereabouts, Mother."

"Were you aware of her previous whereabouts?"

"Yes. She was in the forest outside the walls with her dragon companion."

"And then…?"

"…"

The hammer appeared in Marika's hand. "Unless you would like an appointment over my knee, young man, I suggest you tell me everything that you know about Marina's whereabouts."

"I saw her and Marsinax fly south towards the bay. I recall her discussing fishing techniques with the dragon."

"Fishing techniques."

"Yes, Mother. Perhaps they aim for aquatic beasts."

Marika stared at her stunted son. "If they are not back by morning, we will be having a more in-depth conversation about this."

"There are no need for threats, Mother. I have told you all I know."

"No, you haven't. You're just very skilled at pretending otherwise."

Marika left her son, who did not say a further word in the presence of his irate, anxious, and worried mother.

Truly, Miquella did indeed possess the wisdom of a god. Not just because he knew when to keep his mouth shut, but because he already knew where Marina was going, and he knew she'd be back.

He had already made sure of it….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"How strong is he?" Marina asked as Marsinax flew eastward.

"He's the Elden Lord of the dragons," Marsinax answered flatly. "How strong do you think he is?"

"He can't be any stronger than Dad."

"Have you ever defeated your father in combat?"

"No."

"And you think you have a chance against Dragonlord Placidusax?"

"Yep."

"Where is this confidence coming from?"

"I've got a few other tricks up my sleeves that I've never used on Dad before."

"And you are confident these tricks will keep you alive in the extremely likely event that negotiations fail?"

"Those, and I've got you."

"What makes you think I'll help you fight my Elden Lord?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because he's my Elden Lord for a reason. I am confident that I stand no chance against him."

"Well, by yourself, no. But you have me! A direct confrontation probably wouldn't work anyway, so we're going to have be smart about this."

"Have you truly given no heed to the very real possibility that you might die tonight?"

Marina shrugged. "Not really. I'm not going to die, and neither are you."

Marsinax looked ahead. "I wish I had your confidence."

"Why? Do you think you're going to die tonight?"

"Most likely. I think that even if we somehow survive Dragonlord Placidusax, we won't make it make to the Lands Between before the other dragons tear what's left of us to pieces."

"We'll be fine. You'll see."

"I suppose I will."

The duo flew past Malenia's Isolated Divine Tower, continuing east as the sun faded away in the west. It wasn't much longer that Marina began to see something in the distance. It looked like a gigantic tornado surrounded by a huge, floating city.

"What is that?"

"That is Farum Azula. Home of the dragon, and seat of our Elden Lord. Conceal us. It's better we are not seen, or else we'll be in for the fight of our lives before we even get to Placidusax."

Marina nodded. She cast Unseen Form on them, becoming invisible, quiet, and scentless. There would usually be a mighty whooshing sound as a dragon tore through the skies, but now there was nothing. Not a hint or an inkling that Marsinax was there, especially not with a little rider.

Marina was looking around in awe. There were tons of dragons flying around, both of the Ancient and Lesser varieties. Farum Azula itself was also a cool place, with its columns and temples, though the humanoid beast creatures were out of place to her. As was their significance since she saw a number of open…places...she didn't know how to describe them, really, maybe graves…that had exposed skeletons matching the anatomy of the beastly beings.

Marsinax was heading straight for the tornado, and Marina found it odd that such a huge mass of spinning air wasn't threatening to suck the dragon into itself. Marina barely felt a breeze. She was wondering how this was going to work when Marsinax just flew right into the tornado.

Instead of being violently tossed around, they found themselves somewhere else.

It was a huge, circular arena, the outer ring of which was comprised of thousands of beastmen graves. A ring of columns made the boundary where the graves stopped a stone floor started. The outer ring was sloped upwards, consisting of more graves, surrounded by more columns, and then surrounding the whole arena were gigantic columns, not at all unlike the Divine Towers that rimmed the bay, which were decorated with even more beastmen graves.

Weird things were everywhere.

The sky was an imposing sight. An endless blanket of rapidly moving grey storm clouds that danced with many bolts of golden lightning—an endless storm. However, as imposing as the weather was, that was nothing compared to the Dragonlord.

Floating off the ground and curled in on himself, he was clearly bigger than the other dragons by a large margin, though nowhere near as big as Gransax, oddly enough. Marina honestly expected the Elden Lord of the dragons to be the biggest one of them all. Granted, Placidusax certainly took the cake for the amount of heads of all the dragons, seeing as he had five of them, three big ones and two smaller ones that were all loosely coiled together, all facing the skyward storm straight above.

"So…that's him," Marina said, Unseen Form wearing off in that moment.

"That's him," Marsinax confirmed.

"Does he know we're here?"

"I honestly do not know. He kind of just floats there all the time."

"Seriously? He just floats in a big ball?"

"We think he's trying to commune with the Dragon God, the one before the Greater Will showed up and established its Golden Order."

Marina thought the concept of a god of dragons was rather neat. "If all he does is float there, how come he sent the dragons to attack the Lands Between?"

"The one time he stopped floating, that's what he told us to do."

"Oh. Well, let's go have a chat."

"Marina, wait." The dragon dipped her head low and Marina hopped off to stand before her companion. Marsinax looked at her. "I want you to know that no matter what happens, there is no one else I would ever want to be my sister. I am honored to be your family."

Marina hugged her dragon's snout while popping her right foot. "I love you, too. Now get your war face on and let's end the war!"

Marsinax puffed herself up. "Yes, do let's. To glory!"

With her dragon following her, Marina approached the Dragonlord. She waved at his stationary form, "Hey!"

Placidusax unfolded himself, making it expressly clear just how much bigger he was than the standard Ancient Dragons like Fortissax, Lansseax, and Marsinax. He was longer from heads to tail, had bigger, more powerful limbs, and wide, more magnificent wings.

Ten golden eyes looked down at Marina. "Who are you?"

His voice was as deep and gravelly as you would expect of a powerful dragon.

"I am Princess Marina, daughter of Queen Marika the Eternal, and Elden Lord Radagon of the Golden Order. I have come before you to negotiate an end to the hostilities of the dragons against the people of the Lands Between."

The Dragonlord turned his attention to Marsinax.

"I stand with her," she said. "The killing has to end."

"Your bravery will be remembered," said Placidusax. He looked back at Marina. "There will be no negotiations. Your Greater Will is no more than a parasite, and I will not waste my time on convincing one as innocent and naïve as you of this fact. Instead, I will give you this one chance to return to your mother."

"Absolutely not! She's gonna lock me in my room and not let me use that bathroom and make me poop in a bucket."

Placidusax stared at Marina, and then he directed all his eyes to Marsinax for an explanation as to why this child was so odd.

Marsinax shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Unfortunate."

"I take we're fighting to the death now?" Marina asked.

Placidusax responded by spreading his wings, throwing all five heads to the sky, and released the loudest roar Marina ever heard. Her own response was to utilize one of her favorite gravity sorceries: Cosmic Tunnel. In burst of magenta energy, she was right there next to the Dragonlord, swords in hand, and she severed one of the smaller heads before Placidusax could react.

Then Marina had to Cosmic Tunnel her way out of dodge because that roar was more than just intimidating, it was also a call. Dozens of red bolts of lightning rained upon the arena, melting the stone on impact. The only indication Marina had were a mounting of red sparks upon the ground before a bolt came down. However, that made dodging the bolts quite easy.

Marina looked up to see one of Placidusax's other heads cauterizing the wound she just made. She had to wonder how that worked, having so many heads. Did they all have independent thought? Did they all control different parts of the body? If one head wanted to move the left arm to the right, but another head wanted to move the left arm to the left, what happened? Was there a dominant head, as in a main one? If that head was severed, did a different head become the new main head?

Marina figured the best way to find out was simply to sever all the heads.

Marsinax went in for the attack, mouth open as she aimed for one of the main necks. Placidusax grabbed her by her own neck and slammed her into the ground, pinning her there. With his other hand, he summoned a twisted bolt of red lightning that looked exactly like Gransax's Bolt, and Marina launched into action. With another application of Cosmic Tunnel, she was right back in the middle of the Dragonlord.

With a mighty swing of her blades and a good deal of precision, Marina struck the softer underside of one Placidusax's main necks, and nearly lopped it off. It was a very thick neck and her xiphos swords were only so long. Still, it had the effect of saving Marsinax, since the Dragonlord howled in understandable agony, his lightning bolt dissipated into nothing. He also stumbled backwards, releasing Marsinax, and she launched her own attack.

Her jaws clamped down on the wounded neck, and with a violent, vicious toss of her head, she tore off one of Placidusax's main heads, leaving him only with a total of three.

The Dragonlord retaliated by summoning claws of lightning and ramming all five them into Marsinax's abdomen before she could get away. Then he bit down on her neck with one of his remaining main heads, and would've decapitated her if his other head hadn't been watching Marina.

As soon as the Dragonlord saw the burst of magenta energy, he teleported away in a burst of mist.

Marsinax collapsed, bleeding in numerous places along her neck and chest, wheezing badly.

Marina was at her side. "You're gonna be fine," she said, urgency in her voice.

"I am?"

"Yeah, watch." Marina dropped to a knee in prayer, her closed fist glowing, and there was a burst of golden light with the sigil of the Erdtree briefly shining beneath them as arcs of golden light danced around them. Marsinax instantly felt much better, the pain lessening and the bleeding stopping, but she was still hurting in her chest and neck. "And now this one."

Marina performed another spell, and the only thing different from the first was that instead of dancing arcs, there instead lingering twinkles that danced around Marsinax. The dragon felt warmth flowing through her.

"Erdtree Heal and Blessing of the Erdtree," Marina said proudly. "The Blessing will keep healing you over time but you need to get out of here. Get back when you're at full strength."

"I am staying—look out!"

Placidusax came flying in like a meteor from out of black cloud that sparked with red lightning, his claws adorned with red bolts. Marina used Cosmic Tunnel to get herself and Marsinax out of the way, something that really strained Marina because Marsinax was big, and the gravity technique worked better the smaller you and your luggage were.

It made sense when you understood that Cosmic Tunnel was a teleportation technique that allowed one to "tunnel through reality." Well, tunneling through reality took some effort, and if you were going to be dragging a dragon with you, that meant you had to have a really big tunnel. A really big tunnel took a really big amount of effort. Of course, in theory, this did imply that, with enough power, you could actually teleport huge celestial bodies like moons, planets, and even stars.

Marina would have to explore that later, because right now she had a dragon to save.

And a dragon to kill.

"Please just stay here and heal," Marina begged her dragon as she left her at the farthest edge of the arena, up on the ledge, actually, which gave her a view of the landscape beyond and below.

Before entering the twister, they had been over the ocean. Now they were over mountains that marina didn't recognize.

"Please just don't die," Marsinax returned.

"Deal."

Marina returned to the arena proper, this time by herself. It was a different battle now, since the first two blows had been cheap shots. She'd severed the first head because Placidusax gave her the opening with his storm-calling roar. The second severed head was because he hadn't been looking at her, and so she took that opening too. Now it was a real fight, because all three heads were focused solely on her.

Marina opened up round two with Comet Azur, thrusting both of her magic swords forward, only her Comet Azur was faster, bigger, and a lot more powerful than that of the creator of this spell. The huge cosmic beam tore across the arena at Placidusax, who dispersed in a mist just before he was struck. The beam continued forward, blasting straight through the towering column in the way. The Dragonlord appeared behind Marina, and she twisted fast as a tornado.

Her Comet Azur sliced right through every column in its path like a lightsaber through dry sticks, and the severed, smoldering tops came tumbling down like puppets without strings, crashing down into the arena with mighty impacts.

Placidusax almost got blasted point-blank in the face with the demigoddess's at-home Kamehameha, but he was able to teleport just in time to avoid getting scorched. Even for his scales, a beam like that would have done some damage.

Marina cancelled the spell before even her reserves of mana started to drain too much. She looked around for Placidusax, and was alerted to the sound of crackling lightning coming from behind. She looked and saw that thundercloud technique again, and she watched as the cloud travelled a certain distance before the Dragonlord came shooting at her with electric claws. Thinking she had the timing down, she jumped when she thought she had to, twisted and turned midair, swinging her xiphos as she did, aiming for the neck, only for Placidusax to be faster than what she thought, and she ended up grazing his tail, not even cutting it as the rocky scales offered incredible defense.

Placidusax vanished in a mist and was once again right on top of Marina, swiping at her with his claws. The lightning tore through the arena floor, melting it on impact, leaving glowing gouges in their wake. Marina showed off her agility as she jumped and danced through the onslaught, taking not a single scratch.

Then Placidusax almost caught her off guard when he suddenly spun, his tail coming around like the world's deadliest whip. Marina reacted not in a burst of magenta, but actually a burst of gold. Golden Displacement was her other teleportation technique, taught to her by her father. Functionally, it wasn't any different than Cosmic Tunnel, but it had a different color and also the burst of golden energy upon reappearing had a concussive effect.

Marina appeared in front of Placidusax and chopped off his second smaller head, leaving him with only two heads left.

Placidusax took to the skies in the next second, and proceeded to call down the lightning. Dozens of red bolts once again rained upon the arena, scorching the stone. Marina was spamming Cosmic Tunnel and Golden Displacement as if they were going out of style, though in her defense she actually needed to. This particular lightning storm was far more intense than the others before, with bigger, faster bolts.

Marina got so caught up in trying not to get blasted by the mostly vertical columns that she almost missed Placidusax sending a more personalized attack her way. She just happened to look up in time to see another of those twisted bolts appear in the Dragonlord's hand, and then he flung it at her.

The impact nearly blasted the whole arena apart. It certainly splintered a huge chunk of it off, and it fell away.

Marina actually went flying away in that direction using gravity magic, seeing as Placidusax already had another twisted bolt in his hand, ready to go. If he could spam that thing, he could blast the whole arena to smithereens, and Marsinax with it. Marina couldn't have that, and so she led Placidusax area.

Now, the Dragonlord could've just as easily turned his attention to the recovering dragon and easily take her out, something Marina actually didn't consider to be a possibility, but he didn't. Instead, he hurled his lightning bolt at Marina, not caring that it missed by a large margin as she dodged away, and gave chase.

Marina looked behind her to see that the mighty dragon was following, and she committed to a number of ranged attacks. Materializing around were several spectral spears of golden energy, though each spear was big enough for a troll. Marina really loved her holy weapons. They made her look cool just standing there while she summoned an armory's worth of magic swords all around her.

Marina launched her numerous spears as she flew through the air, and Placidusax just swiped each one that came at him away, or just tanked through it like a menace.

Though fighting for her life, Marina couldn't help but admire the scenery. This wasn't the Lands Between from what she could tell, meaning that tornado she and Marsinax passed through earlier must've had teleporting magic. This place had towering mountains, a mighty river that fed into a huge lake that branched off into dozens of smaller rivers, creeks, and streams, and healthy forests.

It was very beautiful, all in all.

Marina and Placidusax laid waste to it all.

The Dragonlord was far less keen on letting the princess get anywhere near him considering he only had two heads left, and so his new strategy was to spam long-range lightning bolts that melted the mountains, evaporated the lake, and set the forests ablaze. Any time Marina would make a move to get closer, he would simply teleport away and either spam more lightning, or unleash a huge torrent of golden flame.

It wasn't like Marina had a shortage of ranged techniques, though. She had her own golden lightning, plenty of Glintstone and Golden Order projectiles, and gravity magic. She could spam lightning bolts too, and also fire off dozens of blue and gold magic blasts, and tear open rifts in space and time in order to summon meteor showers.

Between the two near-godlike beings, they tore the land asunder, wherever they were.

But there was only so much mana they both had, and they were both approaching the depths of their oceanic pools.

Marina enacted her final plan first. With a battle cry, she summoned more holy weapons than she ever had in her life, and more than she ever would again for a long time. Thousands and thousands more filled the sky, setting it ablaze with golden magic, and the scary thing was how the sword had surrounded Placidusax in a giant sphere. With a closing motion of her fist, the huge mass of holy weapons shot at the Dragonlord in a cascading sequence of layers.

Placidusax curled in on himself, covering his body with his huge wings that were pelted on all sides.

Marina turned her attention to the ruinous landscape around her, and called upon her gravity magic in a way she never had before. A huge pulse of purple energy spread for miles, and the remains of the mountains were called to task. Rubble enough to bury the entire capital city all the way to the outer wall flew into the air, all coalescing around Placidusax's form in a huge, moon-like tomb.

Marina was breathing heavy after that one, beads of sweat running down her face, into her eyes and mouth, and tickling the end of nose. Her combat dress, white with a golden floral pattern through the body, was clinging to her back, arms, and chest, her pants were stuck to her legs, and her smalls were riding up in her crotch and butt, but she had no time to adjust.

All this magic had really drained her in a way she had never been drained since she was six and training at Sellia, when she had been driving her body to the brink and beyond because she was young and stupid, and didn't know when to stop before she hurt herself. Today, she was having to embrace that mentality for what was going to be her last spell, because she was going to use all her mana for it.

It was a good thing that running out of mana didn't mean death. It just meant you couldn't use magic or a weapon's special abilities.

While Placidusax was trapped within his satellite, Marina used her duplication magic on her Dragon's Teeth swords, turning two into four. She held her hands over her head, bringing the swords up, blades pointed at the satellite, and they began to spin.

Around and around they spun, spinning so fast they eventually became nothing but streaks of light in the air. Marina began to glow, wisps of golden energy leaving her, rising into the vortex. The vortex itself began to glow, and before long, a ball of light formed in the center of the circle. The energy from Marina transferred to her spinning swords, and the energy from the swords was sucked into the center, making the ball grow larger and larger, brighter and brighter, and hotter and hotter.

A star was being born.

This spell was the result of Marina's efforts to distinguish herself from her siblings. They all had some big thing they were known far and wide for, but not her. In her jack of all trades efforts to be well-rounded and knowledgeable of many things, she hadn't become known for any specific thing. She was Princess Marina, youngest daughter of Queen Marika and King Consort Radagon.

Like many people, Marina had sought to change that. She had traveled to the Land of Olives for new instruction in combat, and ended up finding love (or what she thought was love; it had been so long since she had spoken to Roman because of the dragons, she wasn't sure about her feelings anymore, nor his). Her efforts to set herself apart dwindled as she figured out to be a girlfriend, but once the dragons came, those efforts restarted in earnest for the sake of her people.

Taking Inspiration from Ranni's Dark Moon, Comet Azur, the teachings of the cosmos from the Alabaster Lord, and how plants thrived in sunlight, Marina had invented a new spell for a whole new conspectus of magic, and this was the first chance she actually to test out the one and only spell for what she hoped would be a wide range of new sorceries.

The working title Marina had for her conspectus was "solar sorceries," and the name of the one spell she had devised, the one she was charging up right now, was Critical Nova.

The spinning ring got wider and wider as the core within continued to grow as Marina fed it her energy.

Above, the satellite cracked and rumbled, before being completely blasted apart from within by Placidusax as he tore himself free in a huge explosion of gold fire that showered the whole area with burning rocks. Miraculously, none of them hit Marina as her spell got a point where it was about to blow up in her face.

Placidusax looked down and saw the massive convergence of magic, knew that was all about to be heading for him, and instead of doing the sensible thing and simply teleporting down there to rake her in half with his claws, or just waiting for the attack to come at him and teleport out of the way, he remembered the deal that had been worked with Marina's elder brother, and the Dragonlord smirked a little bit.

With only two heads remaining and a small lake of mana compared to his usual ocean, Placidusax puffed up his chest, golden sparks of heat bouncing from his maws, and twin beams of golden ruin erupted from the back of his throats.

Marina discharged her Critical Nova.

If she and the Dragonlord had been at full power, Placidusax with his five heads and Marina not about to fall over from exhaustion, their respective techniques colliding as they did would've destroyed the planet. As it was, low on mana as they both were and in this other place, the resulting destruction was the reason why so many chunks of Farum Azula would be found all over the Lands Between, and why Farum Azula itself would be Crumbling.

For the dragons currently flying around their floating city, there was a blinding light from within the storm that led to a place beyond time, and a deafening, world-shattering boom.

For the denizens of the Lands Between, the sunrise came early that day.

And when the wounded Marsinax brought the unconscious, burned, living princess back to their home, Marina finally earned her distinction.

As the Dragon Princess of the Dawn.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Critical Nova = Final Flash because why not?

For a better idea of what Marina's xiphos swords look like, go look up Drinker of Light, which is a sword from AC: Odyssey that was made to look like Achilles's sword from the Troy movie.

Did no one make that connection? Land of Olives, King Troy, a son named Roman?

Also, speaking in terms of references, Marina's going to get her own armor set next chapter, a gift from Miquella, and I will go ahead and tell you that the armor is based on the Altered Bloodhound Knight chest piece, the Blackflame Monk Gauntlets, and the Nox Greaves because the waistcloth is cool. This is also my personal favorite Fashion Souls outfit, so if you want to go make it for yourself real fast if you have the game, feel free.

Next chapter is the last Lands Between chapter, in which the aftermath of the War of Ancient Dragons is explored, meaning Dragon Cult, Marina begins more work on her solar magic conspectus, and she is visited by the twinbird, which will not be welcome, but will open the door for Marina to learn death sorceries and wield ghostflame.

Do bear in mind that Marina is so steeped in Golden Order Fundamentalism, and the reason she never used the fire technique of her Sword of Night and Flame, or learned any fire sorceries, is because fire is bad. You know, because fire is bad for trees.

Man, if you guys can stick with me and I can stay motivated, I think Marina's character development from here to the end of the story is going to be one of the best I have ever written.

That being said, my senior year of college is set to begin next Monday, August 28, 2023 for the time travelers, meaning my writing time will become limited as schoolwork picks back up.

Wow, this time last year I was hot and heavy on Piper's Untold Story.

I will endeavor to crank out the next chapter of RBP (Remnant of a Backup Plan) before next Monday, but I'm not making any promises.

In the meantime, Fav, Follow, and Review please!