Another month passed, the tournaments had been a hit and removed all the tension, so much so the champion tournament was to be kept on hold until the next time tensions rose but would be announced immediately upon a whisper of a rumour of discontent.
We had regular guests at our home now, Lords, generals, knights, adventurers, familiar faces from Haslon on their own travels and our own family, neighbours would also come around, but the biggest change by far was Kilemia moving to Burlot She arrived one day and told us she had been assigned to the orphanage in Burlot as its supervisory caretaker, assuring us she wouldn't impose but didn't want to hide it either.
I hugged her and told her I was proud, and she cried for a long time, which was awkward because Lia had to go on a diplomatic mission to the lamia, and I was, well me. I made some tea and just kind of sat there watching her until she passed out at the table, for which I earned a beating upon Lia's return, when I was sat on the lounge chair reading, unmoved by the mess that was my sibling.
At the end of that month however, we were at the orphanage providing some tuition to the children on adventuring, when the alarm bells sounded to signal the start of the battle. As Lia told the children to stay inside, reassuring them, I erected a few barriers of various kinds around the building.
Having dashed to the gates, spotting what looked like a massive flock of birds on the horizon, when we reached the assembled force outside the wall we were forced to change the plan.
Lia barked orders to various units, archers to the walls, infantry and mages to disperse throughout the city, our original plan was meant to repel a land-based assault, but Lia had this in mind just in case and ran drills accordingly.
As the enemy approached, my eyes lit up as I saw the flock was made up of drakes and wyverns, but what caught my eye was the adult dragon at the fore.
I used unity and could tell these were the foes we were waiting for, but the dragon was an exception, and I became depressed immediately as I considered that the dragons might be willing servants.
Determined to learn if that was the case, I called out to them that I was Unity, and all but the dragon set to swarm me. I swatted them out of the sky without effort however, then used creation to make an obsidian chain, before jumping at the dragon and leashing it.
I dragged the dragon to the ground and asked why it was acting in service to the gods, but it refused to talk, and Lia suggested that freeing it might make it more cooperative yet as she approached it bared it fangs and showered her in fire.
I found myself in its path, only able to envision shifting myself to take the attack myself, magic was unable to create a barrier without instruction, but it could use that mental image and inner desire.
Flames lapped at my skin, causing it to bubble and blacken, the pain was intense, and the heat felt like the initial wave from when I created the miniature sun but prolonged and almost intolerable as my vision blurred.
After what felt like a lifetime the flames subsided, and I set to work on healing myself. In the meantime, Lia set to work, she had beaten it to the ground and wrapped the chain around its mouth as a muzzle, about to slit its throat in a murderous rage, further enraged when I dragged it by the chain out of her reach, though the movement was agony in my state.
Gritting my teeth against the pain that threatened to consume me, I pushed myself to my feet, then started making my way towards it as I drew on creation even further to entangle it something reminiscent of brambles. Lia charged at the now immobile creature, lost in a battle frenzy, I threw myself into her path.
The dagger cut deep, I could feel it carving into several of my abdominal organs, and Lia was forced back to her senses. She covered her mouth and started shaking, and I raised a hand to place it on her cheek but hesitated as I saw the charred flesh of my fingers, instead I told her I loved her and that she shouldn't kill the dragon yet, I asked her to wait until I could finish the healing before keeling over in a ball.
Lia was more distraught than ever, through the distortion and blood red colour I could see her weeping and trying to think of some way to help, but there was nothing she could do, and inaction was making the guilt she felt intolerable.
I begged magic to heal me faster, remembering how I saw the skin turn pink, then red, then bubble and burst, before it finally turned black then played it back in reverse channelling magic into the memory.
As bad as the pain was getting burned, the pain of accelerated healing was far worse, and whilst short lived I nearly blacked out from it, only staying conscious as I ripped the serrated blade of Lia's dagger out.
As I commented about how unpleasant the experience was, Lia tackled me to the ground, relieved beyond words that I survived, entirely inconsolable. That wasn't the time however, and I turned my gaze to the dragon, standing and walking towards it, fear welled in its eyes, so clear unity was redundant in the deduction.
It struggled against the obsidian brambles, sending shards of scales flying in all directions which bounced and ricocheted of the barrier I had erected, in no hurry to suffer its breath again.
Finally, I reached its vicinity and pried open its jaws, it tried dowsing me in flames again, but my attempt to open its mouth myself told it how effective it would be. I reached into the inferno, remembering reading a book on dragon anatomy and moved my hand towards the glands under its tongue and in an instant, the torrent of flame was replaced with one of blood and I was drenched in bubbling, sticky, liquid that would be eating away at me as easily as the flames if not for the shielding.
I sealed the wounds to stop it bleeding to death, then fell back exhausted, Lia re-joined me and hugged me tighter than ever forcing me to heal her as the dragon blood ate away at her but too tired to remove her.
When she finally released me, I asked the dragon again why it chose to do the god's bidding, again it chose silence and I stood heavy hearted, ready to do what I stopped Lia doing just moments before.
Deafened by my own beating heart, I stepped slowly toward the once majestic creature, hoping it's stubbornness would wane and give way to cooperation, but I came into killing range and all I could do was spill my guts pathetically.
"I love your kind, I wanted only friendship, I don't even care you nearly killed me, but the gods want her dead to, and I will defend her if I have to break my heart a thousand times." I then lined up my arm like a spear, ready to pierce its skull with a final death blow, then everything went black, and I had thought exhaustion got the better of me mid strike, before a cloud rending roar brought back to the world.
The ground was shaking violently, and the sky was dark above me, gale force winds battered me, threatening to throw me into the wall to my side, it was the sound though that left me in a state of sensory overload the likes and volume I had never heard before.
I asked magic what was happening, and it told me to remove my arm, I had been unaware but warm liquid was pulsing across it, following magic's instruction I pulled my arm free and whilst the shaking grew worse, the noise ceased, and sun reignited bringing light back to the world. That light however was all I needed to know there was a good chance I was about to die.
I told Lia I loved her and teleported her back to Haslon, a sideways glance at the dragon still restrained, and I retrained my eyes on the new threat. The first was roughly a hundred and fifty feet long and I had no idea how tall it stood, but the new arrival was almost four times longer and the best I could tell would stand almost tall as the other was long. I asked magic to form my armoury of blades and launched them at its wings.
I collapsed, totally spent, with no strength left, even breathing was laboured and shallow. After a brief while, the ancient goliath craned its head over me and called me a brave one. "Keep your compliments. Just leave Lia be." It asked me if I even considered my own life and, in a wheeze, I told it I didn't have that luxury when she was in danger and it responded by telling me who would protect her after and I answered that it would be her, without me holding her back her growth would exceed mine many times over.
He told me I didn't know my own power and raised a claw, cutting open my shirt and tapping it against the obsidian, which was now barely the size of a coin, creating a high-pitched whine and bringing me back to full strength.
"We dragons are echoes of creation, the material counterpart to the spiritual gods and devils. I attuned my echo to your creation and restored you, now may I ask your story? You did after all admit your desire for friendship and I swear it now that whelp acted alone."
I told him that before we talk we had to prepare for Lia's return, her fury was going to be wild, and I was no doubt in for a world of suffering for teleporting her away, I erected a barriers around us that Lia couldn't hurt herself against and sat, telling the dragon to get comfortable whilst pulsing mind links to her, updating Almick in the meantime.
By the time she arrived she had been yelling at me for two hours, and the hour was late. After she arrived, she punched and kicked me and the dragons until she collapsed from exhaustion when she did, I scooped her up and held her as she feebly attacked me with what little strength she had left.
I couldn't stand seeing her that way, but it was time for me to tell our story. When we had finished, the dragon walked over to the other and asked me to release the brambles, I obliged his request sensing no deceit or ill will, he then clutched the writhing dragon in his jaws and dropped it in front of us, pinning it with one set of colossal talons and telling us his fate was ours to decide. Explaining that, as other echoes, the gods held no sway over them, which meant he made this choice on his own and had to face the consequences in kind.
I looked at the shredded remains of the drakes and wyverns, at Lia and the dragon, and told him there's been enough suffering for one day and they should leave, but he needed to keep him on a leash.
The ancient dragon bowed respectfully, then asked if I would consider restoring his flames in exchange for some other deprivation, I clenched my fists in frustration, but the simple truth was that this dragon had spared us and earned a favour.
I approached the dragon and told it to open its mouth, apologising in advance at my exhausted sense of mercy as ripped out its four largest fangs. "Now you have no fangs to bare against us, take your flames, next time you try something like this I'll show you mine."
I gave the warning as I restored its glands then healed the bleeding gums. When I was done, I stared at my blood-stained hands beginning to wobble on my feet. As the dragon asked if I was well, I roared in absolute despair at such pointless bloodshed and all the tears I never allowed to flow before flowed freely as I fell to my knees still staring at my hands.
The larger dragon was calling to me, wanting to act but limited by its size it could only ask Lia to help me as its every movement made the dragon still pinned down roar, squeal and welp. Lia assured them I was ok, explaining that she thought as much pain as I was in, it was progress in its own way, she moved to my side and knelt down rubbing my back, as I began manically wiping my hands on the grass to clean the blood, disgusted by the deep red that stained them.
The dragons watched over me alongside Lia until dawn, it was like a switch had been flipped when I finally regained my senses, but grief gave way to anger in an instant and that was something I knew how to manage.
I stood and teleported myself to a place just beyond the mountains where the lamias lived. An area I knew to be desolate and deserted and used my union ability to create another sun, much larger this time and launched it into the sky before teleporting back and asking the dragon if there was a chance I killed any gods with that.
He told me what I thought would be the case, that the idea of heavens above was an error and they were in fact a different realm similar to that of the hall, however I was surprised when he added that if a god had taken the hit head on, they would have been destroyed. He then said if I was feeling more stable, he would take his leave, but before that he would like to bestow a token of friendship and apology on Lia, lowering his head to the ground he breathed a strange, almost ghostly fire over her.
He explained it was a dragon's way of bestowing a portion of their echo on another, making her physically far more powerful and could potentially grant her some other abilities but that would depend on her compatibility with the source echo.
The dragons left after that, and Lia took my hand to lead me home, but I wasn't in mind for crowds, instead I teleported us back to Haslon, I knew Lia would have left people in a panic and we needed to apologise for that.
We arrived in Storyteller's lounge, making him jump out of his skin, spilling tea everywhere and shouting at our intrusion.
When he had calmed himself, he threw his arms around me and began sobbing, saying everyone thought I was dead, and Lia had charged off to die with me. demanding an explanation as an angry father and furious still when we said we should gather everyone back at Almick's manor before reporting.
We had similar reactions from everyone and incredibly the only reasonable one was Lord. With them all gathered, I teleported them to the dining room in Burlot's manor and then went to collect the dragon fangs before joining them.
We filled them in on everything, the news that heaven was a separate realm surprised no one, I apparently, the only one who took the description of "above" at face value which left me childishly bitter. The news that I could kill them was welcome news, however, to accomplish that we had to find a way to bring them over to our realm and stop them escaping.
Lia asked me if I have the stomach for it, a valid concern given what she just witnessed, but I simply repeated what I told the misguided dragon. Then I told them I would be leaving in a week, the battle was over, I had definitely taken an emotional leap forward, but now I needed to leave before that became a weakness and now that we knew killing the gods was possible for me, we needed to find a way to get them in reach.
Of course, all the others argued a week was not long enough, but I withdrew the fangs onto the table. "This hurt. I need to leave before the pain is all I can remember of this place." As I spoke, I found myself staring at my hands again and Lia had to take them in hers before I stopped, everyone could see why I needed to leave now and they ceased their objections, happy I gave them a week.