“So you really are alive. What is this? One of the experiments of the dwarfs?” the prince asked amazed and searched the room with every gaze for the book.
“They are a new type, created from our mistakes, the evidence that we have not completely failed.”
“It seems weak and small. In a fight it would not survive a single day. How do you see such a creature as a success? Tell me how you could survive.”
“The temple is more than the council made you believe. Below it is one of the oldest tombs of the dragon culture. All of our ancestors are buried there. Only a few know about this place.”
“Buried? Do dragons not incinerate in death? Enough of the lies give me the book and come with me,” the prince asked and looked threatening at the now screaming baby.
“You fill his heart with fear, Marko. There will be a time when his kind populates the world, and we will be gone. Our superior power was our destruction, as it was the vast knowledge of the dwarves that sealed their fate. We had too much, but this new species is at the very beginning. Time will tell if they can learn from our mistakes. The world is destroyed, my son. No building of the dragons, no memory of our species is left. Take the book, but I can no longer help you.”
“What are you talking about? What have you done?” roared the prince and his father gave him the book.
“I am not a dragon anymore. This is what I have learned; this is what my proof of loyalty had to be. This book contains the gift of bringing glorious things into this world, but at the same time it will always remain an instrument of destruction. It is the last treasure of the gods, and I want you to take and hide it. Do not allow the hatred of your people to torment you, and get rid of your prejudices. Only a few white dragons lived after the storm and today they are all dead. Only this new type has remained. I call it the born-again.”
The prince was speechless with the deeds of his father, and so he turned away from him.
“Go and hide, as you have always done. If they find that you are still alive, they will seek you,” said the son and the father rose from the ground.
“I am not running away, but you are. What has happened to your music? What happened to your talents? You are hiding who you really are, because you want to be one of them. Can’t you see that all they want is to destroy the world?”
“Father, I wanted to be like you, a legend among the dragons. But you are not the legend that people saw in you. Your weakness in the presence of an enemy, your weak breath, wasted for creatures that are doomed to extinction and yet you possess the iniquity of denying my gift to you. Your life could go on; it could exist beyond this time. These weak creatures are not born for battle, and not even to rule. Therefore they will lose against us, and all of them will fall such as the dwarves did on this very day. Lowan will create new dragons, more powerful than all before him, even more powerful than I am.”
“You have become more powerful than I ever was, and still you know nothing but destruction, it is all that I can see in your heart. They may not be fighters, no rulers, and they may not be as powerful as you, and yet you will one day find your defeat at their hand if you can’t get rid of the hatred in your heart. Without your music, without your spirit, you are just as empty as the book in your hand.”
“Do you think that we need you to use this book? You will never understand what a dragon desires. Survival is all that matters and your born-again will sooner or later understand that. Maybe the time to show them has come now. Both of you could finally learn what it means to stand against a dragon prince,” said the son, and slowly moved towards his father.
His father put the baby back into the crib and looked at it with a smile that he immediately pointed towards his own son, who without hesitation ripped the heart of his father from his chest with his bare hand. The lifeless body of his father was now lying before him and the baby cried franticly as the prince dropped the heart on the floor. He did not look back, because he felt guilty for what he had done, even if he believed that it was fair and that it was correct. The baby he let live, because he did not believe that it once would pose a threat.
Unable to face the remaining dwarves, the dragons returned to the depths while the hard-hit civilization of the dwarfs would hardly survive a further blow. It was a situation of fear on both sides, since only a few hundred dragons and a few thousand dwarfs had survived the fight.
Many years passed and the dragons had gathered underground, while Lowan ordered the wisest among them to study the secrets of the book. Finally it had been done and new dragon eggs had been created. The prince had up to this point never seen one before, because no one knew how to create them, as the knowledge was lost over the centuries. Normally it would have taken five hundred years until a dragon would hatch from the egg, but this generation was particular and Lowan succeeded in accelerating the process enormously.
After just two hundred years the first dragons lived in the upper world. The number of born-again grew rapidly, and from the few that once existed, huge tribes began to populate almost the entire continent. Only on the day of birth the prince once again shared his memories with me, and he showed me the malformed monsters, which Lowan had created. Without his father neither the prince nor anyone else could achieve what they all were dreaming of.
The weak born-again fell in thousands, when the dragons eventually returned to the surface. So died dragon after dragon, the more years passed. Hardly a dwarf was born in these times, and the few of them who were still alive, were now subdued by the born-again who they once helped to conquer this world.
It was the blood of the humans, which would now be the downfall of the dragons. Only a few remained, among them many of the lowanian generation, which very soon was known as a new type of white dragons. The prince lived in seclusion back in the castle of his ancestors and waited for the day on which he would finally be able to decrypt the book, until the day that changed it all.
“Give me the book, Marko. It is time to create more dragons. Once again, some of our best have fallen victim to these barbarians” said Lowan as he walked into the top tower.
The prince was completely immersed in the writings of the old ancestors, but he found no evidence of the old language, which now no one was able to speak.
“Another lowanian generation? Don’t you think that you have lost enough of your honour already? Do you want to be the downfall of our people?” said the prince and stowed away the scriptures, in front of which he sat.
“What else is left? Should we simply die and do nothing?”
“No. There is still a place where I can uncover the secrets. A place that I did not wish to return to, but it seemingly can’t be prevented. My father told me of it, and as you know, I mistrust every word of this traitor. But now where nothing more remains but these words, I think that that it is time to follow their call,” replied the prince and he took the book into his hand.
“Your trips around the world, secret scriptures and old languages have brought us here in the first place. We have believed for too long that someone would once understand this book. Our attacks against the dwarfs have been the doom of both populaces. The born-again formed a new world from the ashes of the old, and now they have become the rulers. Do not believe that there is still a future for us, especially not in a book,” said Lowan and left the prince alone.
So many years had he not seen the surface of this world, and the light of the sun blinded him when he rose from one of the tunnels. The number of the tribes of the born-again amazed the prince, but his gaze was directed only to the horizon where the temple of the High Council could be found. But as much as he searched and as much as he hoped that his father had not lied to him, so he could not find the tomb of the ancestors. Desperate and alone, he sat on the steps of the temple where he had seen his father such a long time ago.
“You were right, father. They were the future. This book is thus the last treasure? If that is so, then I will have him no more. Take your book back and give me nothing but time.
I will prove that the dragons are not dead and that the born-again can fall,” he cried out over the sea, and he wrote a last sentence into the once so holy book of his culture.
The book disappeared, and it was his way to protect his people against Lowan and he hoped that one day a different person would find what he was not able to. At this moment I understood the feelings of the prince and the power of the humans, of which he was so overwhelmed. All that remained to him was his dream of once becoming the king of all dragons and to be the most powerful being of the planet. And even in our time, in which he had achieved all this, there was no one who could truly witness any of it. He was not guided by madness, but by sorrow and despair.
Chapter 52: Opus Magnus
“Now you have seen what happened in my time. Are you still convinced that you would have acted differently than I did? Do you really think that we are so very different?” he asked and touched the red-and-black sand under his feet.
“No, but I would not have acted like you have. I would have never killed my father. Again and again I have blamed myself for his death, so much so that in the end I was convinced that I had killed him. But in reality, I have tried everything to save him. My own life I would give just to see him again.”
“That is how you see this world, as a tragic game beyond our influence? Do you believe that you are completely without guilt, just because it wasn’t you, who dealt the final blow? Many of your contemporaries die, even in this very second, but you stand here and do nothing to prevent this. Are you not to blame for this? I have always known that I should have done more to be stronger - more determined. Today I look back on the world that I lost and my father is to blame for it.
So many centuries in which he watched the world disappear, because he believed that it was fair and was correct. This book, the last treasure of the gods, was only an example of their comedy. They gave it to us not so that we survive, but so that we perish at their knowledge, just like they themselves could hardly bear it. For me it was at the time no mistake to leave the book behind, it was the only correct action. And yet I have to blame myself for the obliteration of my people because of it. I was too weak to stand against the given law and was too naive with my trust in Lowan.
My own father chose your side, and he gave up his power and his status to be as you are. He died, not through my hatred alone, but through that of a whole kind. It were the death screams of the dragons that pulled him down into his grave, and it will be the same cry of humanity, which will bring my kind back to life.
At that time on the square you chose very specific words, which showed me for the first time that we truly are the same person. You said that you would bring back the dead into this world. That you would fight, so that the people who died would receive a new life. We have the same goal, Albus,” he said and I saw a smile on his face.
I could almost see the young prince that I had accompanied in my visions, but I felt that he was no longer the same. He got up from the ground and stopped the lights of the crystals by clenching his right hand to a fist. When he opened it again there was a small glowing ball hovering above his palm, which pulsated full of force.
“This is the secret, the fifth element. From these crystals anyone can be given eternal life. This is immortality. I have sacrificed much to get what you can see here, but I do have destroyed even more. My words are final and they should show you the difference that separates us, and that it is more than mere belief.
If you join me, then you can be a dragon, a member of an immortal caste, a king among kings. But if you decide to act as my father did, then I will not rest until the last human has disappeared from the face of this planet. I will destroy all of them before your very eyes. Submit to my dominion, and save your people or face me, and perish with everything you ever cared for.”
I looked at the ball in his hand, and as clean as it appeared, so dark was its energy. It was a soul, the source from which possibly everything was created. It was this energy that trapped the spirits of the people and anchored them in our world. Once again I had to decide, and again there was no real choice. To me it was clear that he would never allow humanity to survive, but it would be enough time to give me a chance and finally stand against him.
“At the beginning of this journey my answer would have been quick. Becoming a member of the most powerful class on this planet? Finally being part of something big, which can influence everything? Of course I would have joined you.
Today I understand what it means to be human; to be weak, directed by greed and the hunger for power. We distinguish ourselves not through our motives, in that you are right. But what distinguishes us, is not our strength, our conviction or our number, it is our solidarity in the fight against a greater evil.
If you turn against this world, you should be ready to fight. We will find a way to stop you, and even the dark magic in your hands is powerless against us,” I said, and the prince closed his hand.
The light returned to the large crystals on the ceiling of the cave, and the prince said simply: “So be it.”
He turned around and went on: “Once I would have thought of you as a great fighter, a hero. Today, I think of you as a fool and a dead man. I will show you the side you chose.”
With a simple clapping of his hands we were back in the ancestral hall. Again he tried to intimidate me with his power, but this time he did not stop at this point. Isaac was kneeling bound on the ground, while Lucia held her blade at his throat. Mel was standing next to them and it was obvious that his power in this place would soon no longer be sufficient. He was just a spirit and his connection grew weaker every second, the farther he was from the window to his world.
“The human spirit is weak and easy to influence. As soon as I order it, your friend dies. Another value-free life would be gone, no more wasting space on this planet. But what if he could be like us? My father saw potential in these creatures; he saw them as our heirs. Is it then not reasonable to assume that this man could be more than the first glance suggests? I propose to you a trade. As I find, an absolutely fair exchange. Fifteen years from this day until my anger will burn the earth under your feet. Assemble yourselves, develop, and show me your, oh so invaluable enormous strength.
Perhaps then finally a warrior is born, who can stand against me. A brother of my own blood,” the prince said to me and sat down on the throne.
I walked towards Lucia and looked into her eyes. Jasper had trusted me, because he had given up on the security that the prince had promised him. He believed that I could be better than the rest of us.
“Another war? Many more deaths? Why? We recognize the power of the dragons, and we know that we have only one possibility to win, as long as you’re alone, prince. But should you use the book in order to create new dragons, we would be falling like the dwarves before us,” I said in the hope that the prince would not make the same mistake as Lowan did.
“You spoke of the unity of your people, their power of a united spirit and now you kneel down before me in their name? Perhaps I have judged too early. Lowan made the mistake of not knowing what he did, but I am in possession of the solution. The dragons will rise again and they will compete against the born-again. And then at the end, you all shall join my father in death.”
I winked at Isaac, and Lucia and Mel now knew that I was going to do something, but it was too late for them to act. Fire surrounded my body and I ran towards Lucia and grabbed her hand so that she would drop the weapon. Mel was too weak in order to defend himself against me, and he backed off, full of fear. I loosened the shackles of Isaac with my power and lifted the weapon from the floor. The curved blade glowed with a bright red, and the prince was still sitting on the throne without any emotion.
“Is this your choice? A futile attempt to kill me? Did I not tell you that you are not capable of doing so; to even hurt me?” he said, stood up and walked slowly towards me.
He lifted up his hands scornful, and with every gesture he asked me to attack him. But
even as he stood right in front of me, he had no fear of me. Lucia lay on the floor and I saw her crying out in pain, holding her hand that still trembled in shock. Again I had to injure her to prevent her from further damage.
“Do it, if you think that you have the power to do it!” said the prince to me, and so I stabbed him with all my strength, but the blade broke on his armour.
The glowing tip of the blade fell to the ground, and nothing more than a blunt sword remained to me now, against the arguably most powerful being on this planet. The prince laughed in my face and he looked over to Lucia. As he clenched his hand, I knew what he planned and so I tried again to hurt him. Again and again I stabbed at him, but as much as I heated up the blade, so I missed the force to put it to good use.
“I am too weak,” I said, and the prince passed me without even looking at me.
He stopped and held his clenched fist over the body of Lucia. His gaze met me now and I was sure that this would be the punishment for my actions.
“The choice I granted you was fair and you still decided to kill me. Now you will learn what it means to suffer,” he said and was just about to open up his fist, when Magnus called out to him from afar.
Ultimus Thesaurus: The last Treasure (Era of Change Book 1) Page 30
