Victima

by K R Leikvoll

  I started to walk into the open, but I stopped several times to take deep breaths. Her mouth and fangs were scarier than any demon I had encountered. I was incredibly aware of how light my body was without armor, too; not like armor would stop fire, but it seemed silly to not be wearing any. I didn't need to make mistakes like Kirin and nearly get myself killed.

  So I chickened out and walked back toward the room, my whole body shaking from fear. I didn't even feel that scared when I was face-to-face with Lazarus herself. There's no way this was actually happening. A dragon... a fucking dragon. What was this? Game of Thrones?

  I went to pull the door open and, naturally, it flew open knocking me right in the face and onto my ass. It took everything in me not to cuss and wake up the dragon in the other room.

  Kirin looked down at me startled and extended his hand to help me up. I slapped it away and helped myself. His brows furrowed, but I ignored him and shoved my way past.

  "Val, we need to talk about our next move," he said, holding his head and massaging his temples.

  I swallowed hard thinking about Levia as I picked my breastplate up off the ground. "I already have a plan."

  "And?" he mumbled closing the door. He started rummaging with a sense of desperation in the crates next to the door until he pulled out a beautiful green flask. He took the lid off and sniffed the liquid inside before taking a swallow.

  I struggled for a few moments to attach my shoulder plates like before. Kirin didn't move to help me, per usual. Thankfully (I say that sarcastically), Vince was observing my struggle internally and helped me as he did before. Each piece flew onto me with force that probably left bruises, latching itself with shadows.

  Kirin, meanwhile, grimaced from whatever he was drinking. The ornate flask hit the ground and shattered into a hundred shards. He slid down the wall. I didn't feel bad for him when he started holding his head and groaning. Who picks up a random drink and expects it to be plain alcohol?

  "We need to find the army... if it still exists," I started. I shuddered again at the thought of approaching Levia, but what other choice did I have?

  "They beat us. We don't have the numbers to take on Lazarus with a frontal assault anymore," Kirin groaned, holding his head. "If they are even alive, at this moment, all we can do is march in and hope we don't die before we get to her."

  "If she sent most of her demons to Femora, we could wipe them out and go through the front. That only leaves us, and her with Raven," I said counting them off in my head.

  Kirin gestured for me to continue, but the words were caught in my throat, so he asked, "And how the hell are we going to kill that many demons? Do you have some secret weapon hidden between your legs?"

  My first reaction was to grab a piece of his armor and chuck it at his head. Instead, I let it fall limply onto the floor. The clanging of it hitting the stone was relief from the thoughts I was about to voice. Once I started, there couldn't be any turning back. Without knowing what to plan for, it was hard to plan, but I knew what Vince's cryptic message meant. Levia, if she was willing to negotiate, could not only help us fight the demons off, but maybe Nakarius as well.

  "We're going to release the dragon," I whispered in a cracked voice. I clenched my sides with my hands to keep them from trembling.

  Kirin stood up immediately. "Are you insane? You can't bargain with a monster that will eat you before you can speak!" he growled, furiously shaking me.

  "It's the only way. I don't know shit about this world, but I know Lazarus chained her up for a reason," I replied, removing myself from his grasp. "If we don't try... we lose. They'll go after Earth next. I guess I know how you feel about fearing for your planet." His eyes were wide and confused; he was probably as scared as I was. "Please don't take too long to change. I want to get this over with."

  I sat hunched on the bones near the opening of the pit for what felt like hours. I was almost ready to say screw it and try and wake it myself when Kirin showed up with a grim stare. To be honest, I had no idea how I was going to accomplish my task. I wasn't sure what the proper etiquette was for speaking to a dragon, especially an undead, most-likely unhappy dragon. I hated Vince so much; I didn't want to internally rely on him for strength and guidance.

  As I crept around the corner, I realized that I was more scared of that potential new friend than all of the Void Lords. Dangerous thoughts, though, when I had never really seen them. What I did see was a motherfucking dragon snoring against her chains.

  Kirin desperately tried to yank me back when I walked into the open but realized what he was doing and released me. The resulting force caused me to fall face forward nearly ten feet away from the dragon's massive red body.

  Levia was not a heavy sleeper. Her eyelids, reptilian and translucent, opened curiously at the noise. For a single moment we sat in silence staring at each other before she let out a roar like before. I never thought I'd be thankful for hearing damage because it would have deafened me for sure.

  The giant monster bellowed straight into my face and all I could see was the abyss of its black throat. If I had enough fluids in me to piss myself, I would've, and I don't think I would have been embarrassed, either. I couldn't even move as its massive jaws snapped at me. Thankfully the ring forced out a shield of shimmering energy to keep me from having my head chomped off. That was the only instance Kirin didn't try to rescue me, and I was not at all surprised. I wouldn't have tried to save me myself.

  The cave shuddered like a volcano erupting with the force of her mouth connecting with my barrier, stunning all of us momentarily. She shook herself off from it and then proceeded to breathe black flames in response. The ring didn't stutter and kept me bubbled. The dragon continued to try and burn us as the light from my finger grew brighter and brighter. I had to close my own eyes to avoid its intensity. Finally, she ceased when it was too luminous for her to handle.

  I would've continued to stand there in fear, but Vince's control over my left arm reached outward to her snout. I braced myself, waiting for the sting of death, but it didn't come.

  Instead, the titan tilted her fiery purple eye down and peered at me. I couldn't move my shaking hand back on my own—Vince forced me once again to brush her scales. Even with gloves and metal, I could still tell they were harder than diamonds.

  "I'm not sure what to say," I muttered awkwardly to both Kirin and Vince inside my mind. The beast was staring longingly at my hand. The ring would be considered a valuable treasure to any dragon, I'm sure.

  Kirin was standing in a strange, mid-run stance, unsure of his movements as if one wrong step would get him eaten.

  My feet shuffled slowly toward the chains around her neck like I was trudging through wet concrete. Was it me even controlling my body? Was it Vince? The ring buzzed with white light the closer I got to her shackles. I hesitated a moment before touching it, glancing back at Kirin nervously. Levia stood still as the light touched the metal. It disintegrated into a million silver shards and vanished.

  Somehow, that terrifying moment was beautiful in its own simple way... as if the light sought to free her, too. She was evil, I knew that. It would have made my life a lot easier if I could fully remember all of the Divines' lives, even if it meant I lost myself, just for the sake of doing everything correct. I already messed up so much getting everyone except Kirin and Mortos killed. I didn't even really understand what I was doing in the first place; I felt like a puppet being thrown around in every direction. But in the moment I freed her, I guess I knew what it was like to feel like the Nephilim again.

  The duration of the light's touch was too brief for me to keep any of the knowledge contained. For a split second I was viewing every memory of my long life, and the next I was Val again, facing an unchained dragon.

  "I don't think you want to be controlled by Lazarus. Neither do we," I said barely loud enough to the dragon. "The Void will kill everything it touches, and you can't keep running forever. Help us," I pleaded with her less confidently than I wante
d to sound.

  The great red dragon stood up entirely, stretching out her massive neck for the first time since before she was chained. Her wings expanded as much as they could in the cave before she bashed her hard skull against the roof of the cove without warning. Rock came pouring down around us on all sides. I could feel the ring buzzing to keep the rocks off me and Kirin, even though I was too scared to watch them fall.

  The ashy gray air overhead poured into the cave, letting in the orange glow from outside. My eyes were irritated with all of the light changes. For Levia, it was probably worse. She flapped her wings a few times to free herself from the rubble that contained her. After all the crashing, she brought the entire cave down from around us, leaving us all exposed to the sulfuric air outside. For a moment, I thought she was going to fly away and ruin my only plan, but instead her massive face approached me again.

  "I do this only so it can be known that I was not always the betrayer," a voice that sounded deep and agendered said. Levia's purple eyes were staring at me intensely, studying my features—which probably resembled Vince's. She crouched down lower, and all I could do was stare back and forth at her and Kirin awkwardly.

  "You were born to do this," Vince whispered to me. "Let go of fear."

  I reached out to grab Kirin's hand and pull him with me. Of course, he resisted.

  "No. No way in all the inner circles of the Void would I ride Levia, Progeny of Asinea and destroyer of my Capitol," he refused, crossing his arms. I didn't blame him; it's not like I wasn't about to puke from fear of dragon riding.

  "We can win," I said as reassuring as I could to him with a nod.

  Every bone in his body didn't want to come with me, but he did. He lifted me like a feather onto her scaly back, fingertips lingering on me like he didn't want to let go. With extreme hesitation, he pulled himself on behind me.

  "Let's go see if we can find any survivors. Maybe you could try to fly high so they don't see us?" I yelled down to Levia, unsure.

  Her purple eye studied me as if to answer that she would oblige.

  With incredible force, Levia stretched out her wings entirely for the first time in however long she had been captive and began our ascent into the air. The force from the wind was immense. Between that and the smell, it was hard to keep my grip as she rose into the sky. Kirin was just as frightened, something I couldn't help think was silly considering how I thought he was completely fearless.

  Levia's wings were enough to send us soaring miles in a small matter of time. My fear was still present, but it was replaced with an odd sensation I would've never felt had I not been on the back of a dragon. It was comfortable, like I was indeed meant to be there. Like I had been riding on her back for a millennium. Our bodies were one creature, elevated above the broken planet.

  Broken was an understatement. It was entirely dead near her prison. The ground was cracked and gray; all of the vegetation and animals were extinct. Considering how uninhabitable it appeared, I imagined that Earth might have looked that way before it had life. Hopefully, after the demons were destroyed, the ground would grow again. Total destruction and death in person was different than it was only seeing a photo. It made me want to live in a forest until I died of old age.

  The surroundings got worse as we continued flying south. Beneath the layer of smog that was covering us from the ground's view, I could see countless dead of all races. More Femorans than anything else lay skeletal as the Void claimed their souls due to their Queen's curse. All of the violence made me feel sick.

  We followed the trail of dead to the crossing path of the streams that we had disembarked at. Most of the demons had retreated further back to the east toward Duskwraith, while a pack was running on foot toward the remainder of those still living. There were probably less than a thousand of us left, and they were beaten brutally. It was horrifying to be in the air away from where I could assist the stragglers getting cut down and eaten by demons.

  Finally, we reached the point where most of the survivors were encircled to the southwest of Duskwraith. They were probably intending to make their way back to any part of Evya they could reach... if they could.

  But they didn't have anything to fear, because we were going to win this. For James, for Eve, for my brother, for Alexandra, for Ronen, for every victim of Vince's schemes. And the survivors were something I could work with.

  Thinking as one, Levia went into a nose dive toward the horde of demons coming in a death wave at the remainder of our army. Her jaws opened and black flames discharged in a blaze at the beasts. Kirin and I nearly flew off as she pulled up sharply, mauling a few hellspawns with her spiked tail before ascending. She circled around again in a fury of flames, annihilating the last around our allies. Her powerful wings blew back all of their corpses into the river as she landed.

  Kirin let go of me instantly and rolled off her spiked back onto the ground below. I could hear him actually throw up or make some sort of choking noise as he tried to pull himself up on a dead tree.

  I, on the other hand, waited for her to gracefully allow me to step down. I really wanted to channel my inner Nephilim, my inner balance. I wasn't pure like Eve nor evil like Vince; I wouldn't use my power to destroy anything that didn't need some destroying.

  Levia let out a roar loud enough to shake the earth again and give away our position.

  The startled Evyans, Kaz’moran and Femorans flinched and moved backward. All except one, who only moved toward us because she saw me.

  "We thought you to be dead, Divinus," Sylvia said so covered in black blood and red dust I wouldn’t have recognized her if it wasn't for her bright silver hair. She was carrying a sword bludgeoned to hell that I noticed to be Vya’s. That's the only sign I needed to know that he was a victim to the demonic army.

  "I thought you guys were dead, too," I said slightly out of breath. All three of us stood in an awkward silence, but the men behind Sylvia were making uncomfortable murmurs about Levia. She was eyeing them all like a meal, too. I mean, from one of the only books I knew, it was written that she killed most of their families. It probably wasn't a grand reunion for anyone involved.

  "I'm never doing that again," Kirin yelled at me, exasperated after he recovered from his shock. I didn't have the energy to fight with him.

  "What happened to Lazarus?" I asked needing to get to the point.

  Jotus, alive surprisingly, approached our small circle. We weren't keeping our conversations private at all. "She retreated into the dead woods to follow you," he informed me. "We fought off the demons until they started coming in smaller waves. We took our only chance to run." His golden armor was no longer shiny and sparkling. It was the same deep russet color of the volcanic ground. "Why did you both abandon us? The King is dead because of you! My sister! All of Evya and Kaza'mae will die because of you!" he yelled suddenly changing his previously calm demeanor.

  I swallowed hard, trying to take his criticisms. What would have happened had I stayed? Would I have killed Lazarus and ended the damn war? I didn't think so. Fate seemed to be telling me I needed that dragon. Fate or Vince.

  "We had to stop the curse on the Femorans. Killing Lydris and that phoenix bitch are the reason you are alive right now. Killing those demons chasing you is why you are alive right now," I said attempting to put him in his place without becoming agitated as well. Mental breakdowns were always on the edge of my mind. I imagined it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to insanity from what I had seen and been through.

  I took another deep breath and started again. "Listen, this is Levia!" I said to all of the survivors as I pointed at her. "This is how we win. You know how dangerous she is. She killed your sisters and brothers. She destroyed your cities. We have the opportunity to return that death to Duskwraith.”

  It wasn't the rallying cry I hoped it would be. Everyone was stone silent, staring at either Sylvia and Jotus, Levia, or me. I don't think citing their families' deaths was the best idea, but I didn’t know how else I c
ould communicate that she was an invaluable weapon. Kirin's eyes were telling me that he didn't want to keep fighting; whatever the Void did to him was ridding him of his drive to fight.

  I cleared my throat to try again. "I know I'm an outsider to you all, even if I am the Divinus. I don't look like myself or remember myself... I've been acting different. And I know last time I was here, I made mistakes and got people hurt. But if you go back to the Hidden City, they'll kill you. If Guinevere could find you, Lazarus already knows where the city is. Unless we try this one last time, it's over. Do you want to fight, or do you want to lay down and die? Do you really want to make this all for nothing?"

  "And what assurance do we have that you will not flee once again?" a familiar voice said from the crowd. It was Arubai, still alive, and critically wounded. A worried looking Kaz’moran covered in multiple colors of blood was applying a tourniquet to his severed arm.

  Everyone seemed to be wondering the same thing. Sylvia and Jotus were cutting me with their stares. Even Kirin was waiting for my answer.

  Before, I wanted to run more than anything, but now it felt as though all I could do was continue forward. I wasn't scared of dying. Not anymore. All I could feel was the pressure mounting on my shoulders.

  "I'll fight Lazarus with your help, or I'll fight her alone," I said speaking the absolute truth inside my mind. "Even if I die, I'll do everything I can." My promise made my stomach hurt intensely. I knew that I wasn't getting back to Earth without the Dark Essentia.

  Arubai was a coward and an asshole, but I wasn't going to let him suffer from his injuries. Everyone parted so I could make my way to him, all with heavy stares. As I touched him, there was utter silence except for the sizzling of his wound and his cries from the pain of his arm beginning to regrow. The flesh rebuilt itself: bone, sinew, blood and skin. After all the bloodshed, I didn't care how disgusting it looked. It was easy to heal him, too; I didn't have to strain to will the ring to do simple tasks as much. Sometimes it felt sentient—probably was. That made it just as much of an asshole as Vince.