Alaric had ordered the city’s cellars opened. He personally financed free ale and wine for every citizen, soldier, and worker in the territory. Bonfires roared in the plaza, music echoed off the new stone walls, and for the first time in a long time, the fear of starvation and war was replaced by the roar of victory.
Lucia, exhausted from her magical exertion, could not start her journey towards Ironhold that day. The seas were dark, and her mana was drained. The plan was postponed until first light the next morning.
Alaric, however, did not have the luxury of joining the party.
He was in the secure warehouse near the docks, swarmed by a different kind of predator: the merchants.
Dozens of traders who were present in the city for deliveries were now clamoring for a piece of the kill. They circled the carcass of the Sky Dragon like vultures, their eyes gleaming with greed.
"My Lord, the scales alone are worth a fortune in the capital!"
"The bones! I will buy the bones!"
As his men cleaned up the massive carcass, Alaric found himself conversing with a high-ranking merchant from Shersalon, the Royal Capital. The man was trembling with excitement as he inspected the goods.
"The price would be immense, my Lord," the merchant explained, running a hand over the crimson hide. "Dragon meat is a delicacy that comes once every decade. The leather is impervious to standard steel. The bones are harder than iron. Everything here is almost Legendary Class material."
Alaric did the mental math. His treasury had been bleeding dry for months. The cost of materials, food imports, wages for the construction... it was pushing him to the brink of bankruptcy.
Selling all of this... Alaric realized with a wave of relief. It will fill the void. I won't have to take any loans for a while. In fact, I might be solvent until the end of the war.
The merchant nodded eagerly after Alaric's approving look, moving his appraisal to the chest cavity. Finally, his eyes fell upon the prize that Alaric had already extracted, the S-Rank Magic Stone.
It pulsed with a deep, terrifying energy. The merchant reached out, his monocle glinting. "And this... surely, you wish to appraise its value?"
Alaric reached out and took the stone back, shaking his head. "That is not for sale."
Alaric held the heavy crystal. He thought to himself, The amount of mana this stone contains is astronomical. Selling it would be a waste. This can power the Airship’s main drive. With this, I won't need to act as a living battery. The ship can fly on its own.
"That is a shame," the merchant sighed, disappointed but respectful. "But... my Lord, if I may? There is something odd about that core."
Alaric frowned, looking closer. "What?"
"Look there," the merchant pointed a shaking finger. "Beneath the surface. There are faint colors."
Alaric squinted. Indeed, inside the crystal, camouflaged by the natural green glow of the stone, were faint, unnatural lines. They mixed closely with the color of the magic stone itself, making them almost invisible to the naked eye.
Alaric tried to decipher them. He recognized the shape. "A magic circle?"
Both Alaric and the merchant were shocked, but for different reasons. Alaric was shocked because a biological creature shouldn't have a magic circle inside its heart.
The merchant, however, went pale.
"Sir... this circle," the merchant whispered, looking around to ensure no one was listening. "Though I don't see them much in the markets... I absolutely know this."
Alaric looked at him sharply. "Speak."
"These are usually found on artifacts or cursed weapons used by Demons," the merchant said, his voice dropping to a hush. "The ones that are circulating from previous wars... sometimes they appear in the black market. These specific runes... they are usually used to make a pact. Or to tame the user."
Alaric’s blood ran cold. "The dragon was tamed?"
"It appears so," the merchant stammered.
"Who could even do that?" Alaric asked, his mind racing. "A Sky Dragon is an S-Rank monster. It has high intelligence."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"I don't know," the merchant said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Not only that... It is highly unusual that the seal is inside the dragon's body, stamped directly onto its core. Someone grew this beast to be a slave from birth."
Alaric realized the implications immediately. This wasn't a random attack. He needed to warn Thorne.
He immediately went to his desk in the warehouse office. He wrote detailed letters of the incident, sketching the symbol he found on the stone and detailing the merchant's analysis. He sealed them with wax.
I have to give these to Lucia, he decided.
The next morning, the mist hung low over the harbor.
Lucia and her entourage were already boarded on the merchant ship Alaric prepared. The sails were being hoisted, snapping in the cold wind.
Alaric stood on the dock with her. He handed her a heavy leather satchel.
"These are for your father," Alaric said seriously. "Give them only to Duke Thorne."
He then handed her a small, intricate wooden box.
"And this is the spirit-based communication machine I talked about," Alaric explained.
Finally, Alaric reached into his pocket. He pulled out a bracelet. It was a band of woven silver wire pulsing with a soft green light.
"I have one more thing," Alaric said, fastening it around her wrist. "It matches the one you gave me."
Lucia touched the cool metal. "What is it?"
"It is imbued with a very powerful, Advanced Wind Spirit," Alaric explained softly. "I made it when I made the communicator. It will allow us to communicate through mana pulses exactly like the communicator, but more importantly... the wind spirit will fight with you. In times of danger, it will protect you."
Lucia looked at the bracelet, then up at his eyes.
"Alaric..."
She stepped forward and gave him a tight hug, burying her face in his coat. Alaric wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, ignoring the eyes of the sailors and guards.
"Take care of yourself," Alaric whispered into her hair. "This is probably the final time we will meet before the whole country turns into chaos."
Lucia pulled back slightly. She gave him a smile that was a heartbreaking mixture of sadness and happiness.
"Remember your promise," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "After the war."
Alaric hugged her again, tighter this time. "I will."
She turned and boarded the ship. Alaric stood on the edge of the dock, watching as the vessel cut through the water, slowly vanishing into the horizon.
As she disappeared, the peace of the morning faded. Alaric turned back to his city. The turmoil had ended in Haven, but in the rest of the country, it was just beginning.
In the Royal Chamber of the Capital, the air was filled with tension.
Prince Lucian paced back and forth, his face twisted in a rictus of rage. He screamed at the man standing at attention before him, Commander Rudolf-the current leader of the Unified Royal Army.
"What do you mean by they took out a dragon?!" Lucian shrieked, throwing a cup across the room. "How is that even possible?!"
Rudolf stood stoically, though his jaw was clenched.
"Sir Lancaster said he would cause immense loss for that upstart before the war began!" Lucian raved. "He said the dragon would burn the city to ash! Then how come they took out a Sky Dragon without a single casualty reported?!"
Rudolf, clearly annoyed, sighed. "How should I know, Your Highness? You are the one who trusts that shady priest so much."
Lucian stopped pacing. He turned slowly to Rudolf, his eyes almost bloodstained with lack of sleep.
"Don't you call him shady," Lucian hissed, stepping into Rudolf's personal space. "He is my savior. He is the only one who understands the vision! He will help us. We will definitely take both Thorne and that commoner out!"
Rudolf looked at the Prince’s manic expression. He saw the twitching hands, the dilated pupils.
He is losing it, Rudolf thought, shocked. Is the Prince even sane anymore?
Far away from the royal drama, in a nondescript village forty kilometers northeast of Shersalon, two figures sat inside a two-floored bungalow.
The atmosphere was heavy with fear.
"Hey... hey, do you understand what you have done?"
Raul, the priest who had once fled from Alaric, was pacing nervously, wringing his hands.
"That was Lord Malzareth's pet!" Raul hissed, his voice cracking. "He gave it to us specifically to close the gap in power! He entrusted it to us! And now it's dead? He will kill you, Lancaster. He will kill us both!"
Lancaster sat by the window, looking out at the dreary landscape. His face showed clear distress, sweat beading on his forehead, but he forced a calm demeanor.
"Calm down, Raul," Lancaster replied, though his voice lacked its usual arrogance. "For now... I have stopped communicating with the Tetrarch under Lord Malzareth."
"You... you ghosted a Demon Lord?" Raul stared at him in disbelief.
"I am just following whatever the Pope says now," Lancaster said quickly. "I don't want to handle the Demons right now, Raul. It’s too dangerous."
Raul slumped into a chair, burying his face in his hands. "Well, if the Pope can handle the situation with the demons, that’s great. But what about Alaric? We couldn't stop his progress. How did he even kill a dragon? A Sky Dragon, Raul! How will we even commence the plan if he is that strong?"
Lancaster turned from the window. Slowly, a grin crept back onto his face, a look of desperate & unhinged confidence.
"I don't know how he did it," Lancaster admitted. "But we don't have to worry."
"How can you say that?"
"One way or another, our plan will commence," Lancaster said, his eyes gleaming. "Whatever strength Alaric has... That Lord will surely take care of everything. When the gate opens, when the real power flows... even Lord Malzareth will praise our genius and forgive us for losing a mere pet."
Lancaster laughed, a hollow sound in the empty room. "We just need to start the war."
AUTHOR’S NOTE — Quick Update
Thank you for being here — your support keeps this story moving.
I’m sorry I couldn’t post or publish any chapter for the past week. I was at a family event and didn’t have my laptop with me, so I couldn’t keep up with uploads.
If you’re enjoying the story…
- Please support me by following the fiction.
- Ratings, reviews, and comments help more than you know.
- And most importantly: thank you for reading my work.
Thank you for reading, following, reviewing, and commenting.
— Your Author