Ep 95. It's Not Too Late. (2)
“Lord Serenis! Are you alright?!”
“Aldrid.”
It wasn’t long until the deity of life came rushing back to her lord’s side, son in tow. It also wasn’t long until she noticed the four armored men, all on their knees before the dragonlord who was now holding a strange, bronze-like sword.
“What happened? We saw a tree falling down and came as fast as we could…who are these men?”
“Men from the empire. Empire of…”
When the name escaped Serenis, she looked towards the kneeling lead officer. He quickly turowards the blonde woman who’d just arrived, stammering to finish the dragonlord’s sentence for her.
“Akeia. The Akeian Empire.”
The officer’s answer was met by two distinct replies.
“Akeia?!”
“Hm. Nothing unusual, I suppose.”
The staggering differeweewo deities’ reas left everyone puzzled. Rozerre soon looked towards his mother, heless fused by his mother’s surprise.
“You sound surprised, mother.”
“Of course I am! Did the empire not fall i tury? How are they still…?”
“…? Is that how it’s known in Way? The empire’s resettled to Astellion during its verge of colpse and has regrown to power over the st tury. In fact, they now trol most of Astellion’s nd.”
Aldrid was still frowning after hearing her son’s expnation. The casualness in his tone was almost unnerving.
“…Rozerre, the empire’s soaked Way’s history in blood throughout their reign. Their appearance had always followed with bloodshed.”
“..Weren’t we to remain impartial to such acts? Mankind will always find a reason to despise each other. You were in favor of their nature, mother.”
“When did I ever…?”
“If you weren’t in favor of their bloodthirsty nature, you should’ve made them better. Failing that, you should’ve intervened during the era’s beginning. Is that not what a creatht to do?”
“…”
‘That was only…because…’
Aldrid opened her mouth several times to defend herself, only to find herself absolutely speechless. When no words came from the deity of life, her son pursed his lips, shrugging at the sight.
“Whatever your reasons were, you ot deny that you left things as they were for aire millennium. And besides, you-“
“Enough.”
Rozerre choked on his words from the colr of his clothes suddenly tightening around his neck, being pulled off to the side. He turo see Serenis dragging him closer to their side, staring down at him with a cold, unfiving gaze.
“…Dragonlord? What is it?”
“I require your assistance. I must hear about the make of this bde from these men.”
“? Now, that’s no way to ask for help, is it?”
“…”
After a brief silehe dragave in with an exhausted sigh.
“…I suppose you’re right.”
It wasn’t long until Serenis dropped to her knees before Rozerre. Her gaze fell to the floor, just like others have before her in the past.
“Please. I must know of this on’s in.”
Rozerre stared down at the kneeling dragonlord with widened eyes; he hadn’t expected her to react so quickly. A sheepish ughter escaped the boy as he relished in his newfound superiority.
…Which didly st very long as he soo a cold, iron hand tightening around his shoulder from behind.
“…”
“…”
her Rozerre nor Raizel said a word to each other. The boy merely stared at the steel dragon’s deathly stare from the er of his eyes, gulping down a k of fear.
Death threats don’t wainst individuals of outstanding loyalty. But they sure do against an old, little, immature kid.
? ? ?
It wasn’t long until one of the vilge’s unused sheds was turned into a pseudo-prison. It also wasn’t long until twons walked out of it with a small, frazzled deity of emotions following behind them.
“…Wouldn’t mother be the better choice? Even I could keep watch over a few men.”
“Aldrid does not know about this ti as well as you do.”
“Ok fine, but that metal dragon at least not be around while we talk? Or perhaps she could do the watg instead?”
Unfortunately, making Raizel watch over the empire’s soldiers was out of the question. If that were to happen, Serenis had no doubt that she’d ter return to find the soldiers killed in all sorts of horrendous ways.
Following suit, Raizel immediately shot bare at the little deity pointing at her.
“What’s your problem?”
“Do you realize how unnerving it is to walk side by side with impending doom?”
“Keep yapping and that impending doom’s gonna fall right on top of your head.”
“…”
Serenis disregarded the bickering while she made her way over to a secluded clearing, outside of the vilgers’ earshot. She doubted that Hilia’s inhabitants would care about what they talked about, but it would’ve been problematic for those empire soldiers to hear them.
“…This should be far enough. First…”
The dragonlord then tossed the officer’s sword over to Raizel. The steel dragon caught it in her hand, quizzically looking back at her lord.
“Huh? What’s this for?”
“Break it apart, if you will.”
“…Break it apart? Wasn’t this your friend’s shell or something?”
“…It’s merely a small fragment. And I only seek to prevent it from being misused by others.”
In fact, Serenis would’ve do herself had she been whole and hail. But it would be rather problematic if even a small piece were to enter her system, which was quite possible with hile her current skin was. And the on ractically iructible through magic.
Raizel gnced down at the gleaming bde, shrugging in response.
“Meh, alright then. Don’t regret it.”
“Do break it into very small fragments. They otherwise retain their magic-voiding quality.”
While the steel dragon began crushing the thio dust in her palms, Rave a curious gowards the dragonlord.
“Iing how you say ‘misuse,’ dragonlord. I thought you’d be all for someone dirtying their hand in your stead. Or perhaps you despise the prospect of having your prey stolen?”
“…”
There were several things that had bee clear after questioning the empire’s soldiers.
First, they truly did not know what the peculiar sword had been made of – suformation was only known among the highest of ranks. The four soldiers merely referred to the sword’s material as ‘celestial bronze,’ which was otherwise assumed to be just a peculiar type of metal in their eyes.
Sed, said material was being procured from a set of rocky mountains to the north. Serenis could vaguely guess at what these ‘mountains’ actually were, but she hadn’t bothered to ent until firming the inkling herself.
And finally, the empire had been busily equipping their soldiers with antimagic ons and gathering their troops at a fortress located to the empire’s western edge. Acc to the lead officer, they had but one purpose: to ihe western nds of Asarda, and bring down the deity of stars.
…Except, none of that really made sense.
The Twelve were worshipped as keepers and protectors in variions, but their existence was still rgely within the realms of myth and faith. One did not live out their days thinking a deity would keep their homes safe from an invading empire; one did not ihers thinking a deity would stand in the way of their advance.
But for some strange reason, the Akeian Empire was so certain of Aymeia’s presehere that they were preparing aire army to battle the deity. And they were so knowledgeable that they kly how to bat their enemy, and where to go about finding the necessary materials.
None of which humans should’ve been knowledgeable about. But as, somehow they were.
Rozerre wracked his head in annoyance. Although he was in favor of remaining impartial to whatever bloodfest humans facilitated, things were different when a deity was directly involved – as an enemy, no less.
“Well, this is quite w. After all the trouble we went through to hide it, it wouldn’t do for humans to learn of the shards again.”
“…Trouble, is it?”
When the drag the boy with doubtful eyes, he retorted back with an equal amount of doubt and annoyance.
“What? It was a necessary measure, people would never have stopped killing each other for the divinity shards. Even if Felicir hadn’t killed the star, mankind was steadily heading towards the same doom anyhow. Our divinities may have goo much worse individuals in the end.”
“…”
“That’s why the Twelve had all agreed on disallowing humans from learning our ins. But if they really do mao kill Aymeia, then all that effoes to waste…”
Serenis let out anh, and Raizel rolled her eyes from the side. It retty clear there wasn’t any talking around this little boy’s head, nor was he ied in learning where the empire may have acquired suformation.
Instead, the dragonlord proposed a solution to his problems.
“If I were to destroy this deity’s shard, would that not solve the problem?”
“It’s not that simple, dragonlord. Do you even know where Aymeia is?”
“…No, but I was hoping that you would.”
“I do not. Nobody knows where that woman is. I bet she’s holed up somewhere and hasn’t seen the light of day iuries.”
“You mean, nobody SHOULD know.”
Raizel abruptly interrupted the versation, dusting off the final remains of the broken bde from her hands. She exged gnced with Serenis and Rozerre, simplifying their entire argument in her own way.
“You two make it sound hel plicated. If the empire’s heading somewhere to kill this deity, then they obviously know where they’re going, right? Those useless soldiers might not know, but their emperor has to.”
“…What are you saying, child?”
“I’m saying, just raze them to the ground and make the emperor spit out where this deity is. And then go destroy their shard or whatever.”
“…”
“You wao find out what happeo your friend anyways, didn’t you? Their emperor will probably know that too.”
Truth be told, Raizel was all in for anything that had to do with razing the empire to the ground. And Serenis didn’t see a much better option than the one being proposed, either.
The only one who was eveely against the idea was the deity of emotions, staring at the twons in bewilderment.
“…Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. The empire isn’t some neighborhood house. You ’t just hope to buro the ground a away with it, they have thousands upon thousands of troops at the ready!”
her dragon seemed bothered by the prospect. Though, Serenis was at least kind enough to ahe boy with a remotely logical answer.
“We need but meet this emperor of theirs, no? There’s o harm their soldiers.”
“The emperor is at the very heart of the empire! You’re not thinking of intruding the capital, are you?! Even if their troops are gatheri, he’s bound to have aire army proteg him!”
“Iing. Where is this capital you speak of?”
“…Zeria? It’s southwest from here, at the tre of Astellion...wait, that’s not important!”
Serenis shrugged back at the deity, then looked towards the steel dragon. Much like herself, the youngling didn’t seem worried in the slightest – in fact, Raizel looked more excited if anything.
“How about it, child? Do you see any problems with meeting this emperor?”
“No.”
“Good. We leave tonight.”
Rulped in fear at the prospect of these two invading the empire’s capital. Whether that ossible or not didn’t even him – what ed him more was the fact that he, a deity, had just ewo monstrosities to attack mankind. Which he was supposed to be proteg, at least in appearance.
And, as a st resort, the boy turo the only argument he could think of that could deter the twons.
“…Wait. Even for the dragonkin, wouldn’t it be troublesome to turire empire as your enemy? If yoal is finding Aymeia, perhaps you two could work with them instead?”
“They killed my parents.”
“And defiled my brethren’s remains. We are already enemies.”
“…”
You’re right. Have it your way.
