Dragonlord

Ep 144. This Cannot Be Mere Coincidence. (3)

Ep 144. This Cannot Be Mere Coincidence. (3)

As everyone began devoting themselves to their own tasks, Serenis stood alone in the emptied settlement square to face the possessed academic.

But unlike her otherwise calm demeanor, the dragonlord’s eyes betrayed a hint of doubt.

‘How strange.’

As waves of unaspected mana wafted about the air, Serenis raised her gaze slightly, staring into the intangible haze of blue radiating from Karas. Or at least, the Reaper that was in possession of Karas’ body.

“…Of the countless wandering spirits, what are the odds that you of all would find Karas…in this distant land, no less?”

“Oh?”

“And what are the odds that the dead would possess the means to bargain with the living?”

Serenis shook her head, denying the improbable outright.

“…This cannot be mere coincidence.”

Karas’ eyes thinned as the Reaper within him beamed a wry smile back at his enemy. A soft laughter escaped his beak as Felicir mused at the dragonlord’s words.

“Haha, interesting. It’s quite appalling how perceptive you are at times, dragonlord. If your son had possessed half your wits, he might’ve outsmarted me all those years ago.”

“…”

“Ah, but I jest. Vulka wasn’t truly your son. It’s small wonder he didn’t take after you.”

Serenis let out another long sigh.

She’d found Karas difficult to talk to at times, but never infuriating. But on the other hand, Felicir’s mere existence had always been infuriating for her; she was practically talking to the world’s rudest jester who seemed to know her every secret.

Alas, the dragonlord had no reason to let her anger show.

Unlike before, Felicir was not in possession of his divinity – or any divinity, for that matter. Karas was a formidable mage, but even the professor’s magic paled in comparison to the dragonlord’s.

So instead, Serenis beamed back a mocking grin.

“Should you really be so relaxed, Reaper? Unlike our last meeting, you’ve little to fall back on.”

“Speak for yourself. You not only had Aldrid, but my own sister behind your back.”

“And you held the rest of this star hostage.”

“Hah! Fair enough. I suppose I can’t do that anymore. But dragonlord, you’ve also no one to aid you this time – Aldrid isn’t coming to your aid, nor is my sister. You’ve sent away your own kin, and the Asardans will be quite busy with all the monsters marching to this place.”

The dragonlord’s mocking grin soon twisted into a quizzical, doubtful frown. Try as she might, she couldn’t understand the confidence that the Reaper was exuding before her.

“…You seriously believe you can best me alone? Without your divinity?”

“Making the impossible possible has always been a specialty of mine.”

As his voice faintly trailed off, the possessed academic smirked back at the dragonlord. He soon rose his hand into the air, black veils gathering into his palm.

Immediately, the black veils transformed into a thick cloud of smoke that exploded outwards to cover the surrounding area.

“…Hmph.”

Serenis scoffed at the sight. The Reaper’s confidence came across to her as nothing more than baseless arrogance at this point.

As the smoke swallowed her vision, Serenis wove her in the hand, as if annoyed by a buzzing insect. With a small sigh she gathered bits of mana into her hand, letting it flow outwards in the form of glimmering particles in every direction.

As soon as the floating particles came in contact with the Reaper’s spell, they rapidly began to absorb the darkness around them. Like thousands of white voids spread thinly across a vast space, the looming smoke was almost immediately cleared away in the presence of Serenis’ magic.

But when the possessed academic was visible once more, Serenis beheld the eeriest smile Karas had ever made – one she hadn’t thought was possible in him.

His unremarkable eyes were now glowing in the cold air: a deathly blue she’d seen in the Reaper’s eyes once before.

As the Reaper held one hand against his chest, faint howls began to echo from within his body, emerging from within in the form of colorless grey shades.

“Hm. I was hoping it’d take you longer to undo that spell.”

“…”

A heavy frown crossed Serenis’ face as she witnessed the disturbing scene. Karas was drawing out a countless number of translucent shades from within his body, each screaming in pain and misery.

Soon, the feathered figure would creak his head towards her with a devilish gaze.

“Why do you look so surprised? Have you forgotten who I am?”

“…Felicir.”

It wasn’t that Serenis had forgotten who the Reaper was. Indeed, she wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest had Felicir been physically standing in front of her.

But this was Karas. It was Karas’ body, just under a dead deity’s influence.

While the professor may be possessed by the Reaper’s soul, that shouldn’t have warranted a change in his abilities. As far as Serenis knew, Karas was an accomplished mage and academic, not a deity presiding over death.

However, that belief was slowly falling apart before the disturbing scene.

The countless wailing shades were clearly no magic. Even a fool would recognize that they were spirits of the dead – howling in pain and misery from their prolonged imprisonment within a monster’s body.

Admittedly, Serenis had long known that Karas was a soulseer. She’d known his ability to interact with the dead, and she wouldn’t have been surprised had he been in the presence of a select few.

But this was not ‘few.’

There were thousands upon thousands of ephemeral figures emerging from the professor’s body. The army of phantoms would rapidly scatter about to haunt the world of the living, painting the world around them in a hellish shade.

Their faded forms and wailing cries soon filled the entire vicinity. Serenis could hear cries, laughter, shrieks and shouts from centuries past – and many were clawing at the dragonlord’s form, jealous of her living state and desperate to cling to life.

One wrapped their form around her leg, while another around her neck; countless shades were climbing unto her back, wailing directly into the dragonlord’s ears. They all screamed for the dragon to fall to the same depths as they had.

With a sunken gaze, Serenis let out another exasperated sigh.

“…Disturbing, I must admit. But you’re mistaken if you thought mere spirits could harm me.”

“You? Whoever said anything about harming you?”

“…?”

Serenis’ confusion was soon answered with a sharp, terrified shriek coming from her back.

The dragonlord immediately turned around, but she could see little beyond the layers of spirits hindering her vision. All she could make out were faint silhouettes, screaming and fleeing from the sudden onslaught of the dead.

Some voices would come to an abrupt cease as the phantoms claimed their lives. Those that managed to flee from the numerous shades were instead met by a horde of monsters.

In the settlement that had warped into a living hell, the Reaper’s cackling voice cut through the air to reach Serenis.

“Well? Shouldn’t you go save them again, dragonlord? You were so eager to save those in Partivine!”

“…”

When Asarda had prepared for war, they’d expected blade-wielding soldiers and magic-wielding casters. They expected an imperial army at their forefront.

Conversely, no one expected that their settlement would be surrounded by monsters and spirits – with no warning whatsoever.

A sinking feeling began to gnaw at the dragonlord’s chest. Even when she closed her eyes in reluctance, successive screams continued to flood her ears.

Unlike before, the cries of misery were no longer the faded voices of the dead – they were voices of the living, desperate to survive the hell that their home had become.

‘…This is not…’

In her own era, the dragonlord had always sought after an ideal future: a future where no one would come to harm.

Unfortunately, her ideals had turned out to be an impossible dream. A world where none came to harm was impossible – and it’d taken the entirety of demonkind for her to realize her faults.

‘…This is not the time to be indecisive.’

When she opened her eyes, long, black pupils stretched across the dragonlord’s gleaming eyes.

Swatting away the ghosts clinging to her, Serenis turned back to face the feathered figure.

“…Reaper.”

“Hm?”

“Even in Karas’ body, I’m sure you can still feel pain.”

“…?”

Serenis took a light, soundless step forward. Her gleaming eyes shone through the phantoms’ grey mists as she closed in on the root of this madness.

“Leave Karas’ body at once.”

“…And if I refuse?”

Bolts of black and white mana alike crackled between the dragonlord’s fingers as she approached the possessed academic. Her entire figure seemed to gleam in bits of prismatic particles, melting the phantoms that dared to claw at her figure again.

Undisturbed, Serenis raked the air before her.

Given the distance between them, the dragonlord’s act seemed no more than pointless flailing. But soon, the bolts within her hand mimicked the dragonlord’s motion, releasing themselves from her limb to repeat the attack in the form of massive black streaks.

The blades of mana tore through air before her, dicing the professor’s left arm in an instant.

In the split second that Felicir winced in pain, Serenis leapt across the remaining distance between them. She planted a foot into the possessed academic’s chest, kicking him down unto the ground.

Crunching noises soon followed as the dragonlord pinned the grimacing monster onto the snow-coated ground. Her fingers were once again covered in streaks of black and white lights, ready to slash through the monster beneath.

“Leave. You no longer belong in the realm of the living.”

“Kh…hah! Rich from a demonlord who’s died a thousand years past!”

“…”

“You realize that your precious monster friend ultimately wished for the same outcome? Even if I were to leave, he’ll eventually try the same all over again. He’d stop at nothing to resurrect his lover, and for that, his student’s sacrifice is necessary – I’m only providing him with a more efficient method.”

Serenis’ eyes thinned as she heard the Reaper’s mocking voice, still managing to talk back from beneath her feet.

Shaking her head, the dragonlord’s foot pressed harder into the professor’s chest, cracking through whatever bone there was beneath. Her claws lengthened and sharpened, brandishing themselves amidst bolts of prismatic lightning.

Serenis curved her lips into a thin smile. She slowly lowered her upper body, raising her claws high into the air above the feathered figure’s remaining arm.

“Should we ever meet again, I’d love to hear how your second death felt.”