Polymath Redux

Chapter 27//Assault on Drakenholdt (4)

Upon arrival after following the trail of distress screams was sudden total silence. As the Princess of Drakenholdt made it onto the scene the only things waiting for her were the shambling dead. The crackling of their bones, the forced moans as though they were in constant pain and the silent plea for the release of death.

“What in the…” Irina was shocked. Ordinarily, this shouldn’t have been possible, but her eyes did not betray her with this unforgiveable sight. The forward outposts served as the first line of defence for Drakenholdt, and the guardsmen who were asked to fight off all threats were chosen from the best of the best. For her proud draconian race to succumb to the assault of a few undead was a disgrace to the name of all dragons. Yet, rummaging through the wreckage was just that. The first line had fallen, and black skeletons ran amok. Hundreds of black skeletons scattered about like disgusting insects crawling about the place.

The princess bit down on her lower lip to contain her rage. She drew her sword from her waist and grasped her hand tightly onto the hilt. With the application of enchantment magic, her blade flared up with a deep, crimson glow and surrounded by a deadly aura of snapping lightning. “You damned monsters…” she grinded her teeth.

Turning their attention to the sudden spike of magical energy, the massive horde of black skeletons immediately turned to her. These black skeletons were a little different from the one she had fought, in that they were armed and armoured in a very familiar set of equipment. Indeed, looking at them there was a strange familiarity to them. Then it hit her like the striking of thunder. Looking around, the odd sensation was finally given an answer; it should’ve been obvious from the start. Aside from the undead, there were no bodies. She swiftly turned back and stared into their hollow sockets.

These black skeletons possessed horns very reminiscent of the draconians and wore armour that was supposed to have ben equipped by the outpost guardsmen. “Tch!” she clicked her tongue as she swung her sword into their general direction to unleash a furious wave of magical flames.

She couldn’t forgive this travesty.

Her fiery assault covered the large hard like blanket and in no time almost half of them had been reduced to charred dust. Their remains blown by the wind, her surroundings transformed into a morbid dark smog. Yet, the skeletons did not try to fight back or even fulfil their self-preservation instincts; almost as if they were begging her to kill them and alleviate them from the pain of living like this.

She let out a deep breath and raised her sword for another strike. This was her strongest sword technique: the ‘Flame of the Avenger’. It was a malleable skill that could be used differently depending on how the user channelled their mana. It could be spread out as an area-wide attack or concentrated into a single point to deliver a similar effect to the ‘Sword of Darkness’ skill. Her sword shone brilliantly as the morning star to cleanse away the horror of these draconian-cum-undead. A wave of bright flames surged across to envelope the remaining undead like an impossibly hot tsunami.

“Now that just won’t do,” suddenly came the voice of a small child. As she spoke the dragon princess’ attack behaved strangely as the flames flew up instead of crashing down onto the undead. They soared up and gathered into a small point, making a glowing hot ball that rested comfortably on the palms of a child.

The princess stared up. There, seated upon a blood-drenched black throne was a small child wearing skimpy clothes that bordered between lingerie and actual clothes. With lightless black hair and a single horn to the left of her forehead, she gazed down with a mischievous smirk. Those murderous crimson eyes sent a cold shiver down her back. “I spent so much effort turning those people into black skeletons, so I’d rather not lose them too quickly,” she told Irina with a sinister giggle. “Unfortunately, since they’ve only just turned into the undead, they still retain a little bit of their former will, which does make them a little inconvenient to control.”

Irina grew furious haring those words. There, before her was the culprit that dared to invade the realm of the dragons. This child that was neither draconian nor human. What was she? It didn’t matter, she would die all the same. The princess pointed the tip of her sword towards the small child and wordlessly slashed at the air, sending out a thin fiery shockwave. She had already assumed it wouldn’t work, but the attack was very easily intercepted an invisible barrier surrounding the child. “Who are you?”

The girl pointed to herself, “me?” and acted as though she were thinking to herself. She was not even going to dignify the princess with an actual name. However, contrary to that expectation she answered much more honestly, “I’m ‘Morialia’ the 99th Demon Lord of Hellgana! You may bow before my greatness!” she announced while arrogantly laughing through her sharp teeth.

“Demon Lord?” that title was a shock; something Irina would never have expected, but on closer inspection of the scene around her it was beginning to become much more believable. That said, this place known as ‘Hellgana’ wasn’t one she had heard of before.

From her knowledge, the title of ‘Demon Lord’ should’ve referred to only one person who existed in the mysterious central continent. That person should still now be there, so what was this girl? Was she lying? But her power was undeniable. “Why do you attack? What have we done to you that incurred this genocide of my people?”

Before she killed the self-proclaimed demon lord, she wanted to know ‘why’.

“You’re asking why?” Morialia shrugged. “Initially because he… because I thought the draconians would make for excellent foot soldiers, however it seems I was wrong. You guys are so weak I don’t even know what I could use you for, but then it came to me: I should just use your bodies as base ingredients to turn into superior black skeleton soldiers! It’s that… uh, what do the humans call it, ah! ‘Recycling’! Aren’t I a genius?!”

“What did you say?” Irina furrowed her brows and squinted at her. “For such a reason? We had to die because of such a stupid reason?!” Irina swung her sword once more to fire off another shockwave of her ‘Flame of the Avenger’, to very little effect. The flames parted and fizzled out before even touching the girl, but the way she remained seated on that pompous black throne without lifting even a figure was much more aggravating.

“Yeah,” Morialia replied so matter-of-factly. “But let me ask you a question, are you the ruler of this place? You can’t possibly be, right? I mean, you’re too weak… Or wait… I’m not even sure anymore. I feel like the image of dragons in my head was far more than what I actually got.” She sighed out aloud with disappointment.

“I am Irina Sinclair! The next heir to Drakenholdt, and your greatest opponent, monster!” declared the princess.

The Demon Lord lowered her altitude and landed her black throne onto the ground. Having now taken a closer look, this girl’s appearance truly didn’t live up to her grand title. If not for her immense power and the horn, she would’ve been indistinguishable from a regular ten-year-old human child. She got off the chair and stood with her arms crossed opposite to Irina as if to accept her challenge.

“So, you’re the next ruler for this place? Hmm,” she thought to herself briefly. “Then can I ask you something? What do you think a failed sovereign should do?”

“What?”

“You’re not the ruler for this place, but the feeling should be the same, right? A king who is about to face down the downfall of their country. Tell me, what does it feel like and what do you think you should do?” there was a strange melancholy behind her words, but Irina could not understand where she was coming from, or rather, she didn’t care for that. ‘What should she do?’ wasn’t it obvious?

“I’m going to kill you.”

Irina lunged at her with her sword in her hand towards the small body. She covered the some fifty-metre distance between them in less than two seconds and appeared abruptly before the girl with the edge of her blade rushing for her neck. The girl remained still until the last second when she somehow intercepted the searing blade with just her fingers. “Yeah, I guess that’s how it normally goes; even knowing you have no chance of victory you still charge at me with your life. It’s quite admirable, if just a bit futile.”

“Enough! Just die!”

Irina continued to swing. To little effect.

She changed her tactics and wove flame and lightning magic into her barrage, but even those were useless against this impossibly powerful little girl. Flame magic would burn everything around her except the target itself. Lightning magic would dissipate at the lightest contact with her bare, porcelain skin. Just how was any of that possible? How does a living being become that powerful?

No amount of technical skill or magical talent was enough to overcome this great wall.

“I can… sort of understand what you’re going through,” the demon lord suddenly declared in a lonesome voice.

“What?”

“I mean, it’s a bit strange isn’t it? I’m supposed to be the demon lord, yet I have no army behind me; I’m here scraping the bottom of the barrel by turning to your draconians.”

The thought hadn’t even crossed Irina’s mind that there was a possibility of an even stronger foe than this girl. She didn’t want to think about something that absurd. She continued her attack while wordlessly listening to the words of this solemn demon lord.

“When I first lost, that’s how I felt too. Everything I had spent my entire life building up had instantly turned meaningless before ‘his’ power. It wasn’t even a fair fight- I had the overwhelming advantage- but none of that matter when I lost. It wasn’t just my body that died that day, I think a part of my soul was also killed. And now, I’m reduced to this mess.”

The girl continued to block all her attacks and magic without moving a spot.

“After so long, I don’t even have the will to revolt anymore. Although, seeing how desperately you’re fighting against me, it does rekindle that kind of desire. Then again, I suppose my current lifestyle isn’t too objectionable.”

“Enough of your incomprehensible rambling!” Irina shouted as she leapt back and summoned a meteor shower from the heavens.

“Aha, sorry,” the girl laughed and apologized. “I did get a little to sentimental for a moment there. Then, I’ll take on your attack seriously this time,” she said as she raised her hands and summoned her own magic. The ground growled as a large, red stone monument emerged out of the dirt. An ancient-seeming structure soaring high into the sky carved with many different glyphs that Irina did not recognize.

“What is…”

“This? It’s called a spell called the ‘Red Arcane Megalith’. Basically, it does ‘this’,” the girl clicked her fingers and in that instant all the meteors falling towards her as well as the flame enchantment on her blade dissipated without a trace. Reapplication efforts also failed. The girl’s appearance also started to change somewhat. Though she retained her humanoid appearance, her skin glowed a searing white-orange and became instable like she had become flame itself. A great torrent of heat surged out of her, and everything made of wood combusted on the spot, while metal melted in her presence. Irina herself, despite being part flame dragon, also felt a pain at the sheer heat. “It’s a spell that allows me to temporarily become the deity of flames and control all flame-based magic.”

“That’s absurd,” Irina replied but this heat and the fact she couldn’t conjure flames was forcing the truth on her.

“Hey, I’ve been wondering for a while now, but why are you holding back?” asked the girl.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re one of those special draconians, right? You possess the ability to transform, do you not?”

For a moment Irina held her breath. That was true, she was one of the rare talented that had unlocked the ability to transcend to the mighty true dragon form. Yet, she hadn’t used it. The last vestiges of her pride held her back; she couldn’t stand the idea of having to use her full power against anything other than another dragon. “Tch,” she bit her pride and took a deep breath.

Looking around, nothing was as she remembered it. The remnants of the outpost had burnt up and everything surrounding her was a charred, desolate field. This truly wasn’t the kind of situation she should’ve held back.

Irina’s sword dissipated from her hands as she took several steps back. She glared at the avatar of flames before her before jumping high into the sky. With a brilliant aureate and crimson blast of light, what descended was nothing short of a behemoth. ‘Irina Sinclair’ was the product of both a gold and red dragon. She had the best of both worlds, being proficient in both the flames and lightning, but as of now her access to her flame-based skills had been sealed away by the enormous crimson structure.

Her dragon form reflected her true linage. Her scales spiked up with a rich aureate glow with the tips dyed in a magnificent blood red. A great sanguine mane ran down her back and spine that flared up as though it were fire itself. Her tough, ivory claws closed in on the girl's petite body as though she were a doll. To say that Irina dwarfed this demon lord’s was an understatement. The difference in their stature was the difference between an elephant and squirrel.

Power coursed through her entire body and finally she gathered the confidence she thought she needed to erase this demon. “For your crimes against the Draconians, I shall see to your death!” Irina clasped her clawed hands together with enough force that it'd demolish a castle with a single clap. Yet even after all that, she couldn't close her hand completely. There was a translucent white bubble caught between her hands and within it was the young girl's mischievous smile, protected. “Kuh!” she pressed harder, but it was impossible to crush this bubble. The strength of a dragon, yet this girl… this demon!

The girl raised her hand and clicked her fingers. Small flaming orbs rose from the ground and formed into tiny flaming black needles, all directed at her. She had never seen this sort of spell before. There were a lot of things she hadn’t seen that this girl could do. The feeling these flaming needles gave off was similar to that of the Sword of Darkness; instinct warned her. Irina quickly moved her body away, but the needles were locked onto her, and with the signal of the girl's click, the hundreds and thousands of black needles launched at her as though they were each alive and furious with her. Thousands of tiny stings assaulted her entire body.

It was indeed similar to the Sword of Darkness, but also different; much crueller. Whereas the Sword was a single instance of a straightforward attack, this tore her from both the outside and the inside simultaneously. The damage to her body after facing just one of these attacks would be irreparable. She could feel the constitution holding her body together weakening. Her right arm was the first to go as it fell off after a few seconds of sustained damage and crashed with a loud 'thud’.

She was brought to her knees and on the verge of death. “…” blood trickled down from the thousands of newly formed holes in her body.

“Don't worry,” the girl's elevated voice told her. “I held back and made sure to leave out the anti-healing effects of these needles. You should be able to heal after a few minutes, provided you don't do anything stupid.”

“H… held… back?” Irina lifted her face heavily and stared back towards the girl. “You… till the end…”

She felt tired. So very tired. Her eyelids were heavy.