The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6)
Page 61
“Do you know this Dragon then, Acnologia?” Freya asked.
“Something of the sort.”
Sure, I sighed, and stopped my ‘muse’ act. How do we get up there?
The Shadow Dragon stepped to the edge of the land and glanced up. He extended his wings for a moment and in a flash, he had surged off the ground. Sand and dust flew through the air as the Dragon ascended into the sky. He circled around us — climbing higher, lower, and then hovering in place for a bit.
Well, you seem pretty confused about where we are, I said.
“I have been dead for many millennia, Eternal,” he said. “My memory is not what it used to be.”
He finally came down a few minutes later, and splashed a bit of water as he landed.
“I’ve found the path,” he said. “However, the Volcanic Forest Bears will not be able to accompany you on this journey. We will have to leave them here for the time being.”
Fine, I said. Are we flying up on you then?
“I believe that is the best option at the moment,” the Dragon said.
Sounds good. I conveyed the information to everyone else.
“Wait,” Freya frowned. “Why did we bring the Volcanic Forest Bears here if we were just going to abandon them and fly the dragon anyway?”
“That was more of a safety net for us,” I said. “In case something happened to the Dragon. I don’t trust my Familiar Storage System much.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
“Anyway, let’s get going,” I said. “We don’t have too much time to dwindle.”
Acnologia knelt down, and lowered one of his wings to the ground as a kind of ‘dragon staircase’. I climbed up first, and everyone else followed me. We left the still unconscious Oris on the cavern floor though. We’ll just pick him up once we get back, I thought.
Acnologia and I had discerned Keliora was safe, with no predators anywhere on the lands. The island wasn’t one that had predatory beasts anyway, which I learned from Acnologia was also one of the reasons Polaris’ had made his home here. Not that he was afraid of such beasts, but more so that he found them annoying.
“Everyone on?” I looked back, and saw a collective nod from the four people behind me. Let’s go, I said.
“Hold tight,” the Shadow Dragon chuckled. It lifted its wings up and pushed hard, shooting up into the air. The force nearly pried my grip off its neck, but we all held on. The Dragon rose high into the sky in a few seconds, and then eased up, extending his wings and gliding beside the clouds.
I just realized, I thought. It’s been a while since we’ve flown like this.
“Indeed,” Acnologia said. “You seem very fixated on this ‘walking’ thing of yours,” he chuckled.
“Zoran.” Nyx sounded confused. “I can’t find a map of this place.”
I’m not surprised, I replied. The Ga’em has been quite glitchy since we got here.
“What you call ‘Glitches’, I call reasons,” Acnologia said.
Really? I asked. What reason does the Ga’em have right now to hide all this information from me?
The Dragon chuckled. “Do you really think even apex beings such as ourselves would understand the motivations of a higher force?” he asked. “The Ga’em is far from any of our reaches, Eternal. We are but mere ants before the feet of a giant. An insect does not question the ways of the supreme.”
Did not like that analogy, I frowned. but I see what you’re saying.
The clouds around us slowly cleared up as we flew forward, and the sights below came into vision. As the Shadow Dragon had previously mentioned, this place was indeed an island. Hills of flush greenery stood around the landscape, with small rivers flowing around them, making their way to the ocean.
Irmeia grabbed my shoulders from behind me, and leaned forward, bringing her face close to mine. “What is that?” she asked, pointing at something. I followed her finger and there — much farther away — toward the end of the island, stood a massive castle.
It seemed like a classic palace, and yet, I could see something different about it. Towers of silver-white stood adhered together, and at the center rose an even taller tower, rising to the height we were at currently. The rooftops were all of a green shade — the same green as the jewels over the arch.
“That is Polaris’ home,” Acnologia said, and I said the same to Irmeia. Questions, however, rose within me.
He needs that big a place? I asked. I thought you said this Dragon liked to be alone. What does a person like that need a whole freaking castle for?
“Ah,” the Shadow Dragon said. “Polaris has an ego problem of sorts.”
My expression changed. That explains everything.
A strong crosswind blew past us, and tilted the Dragon. We all held on tight as we fought for a good grip. Acnologia quickly pushed down with his wings, and took us higher into the sky, and above the clouds. The winds quickly disappeared and the air was calm once again.
“Better,” he said, as we glided in silence.
The sun shone from above, its rays not hot like I’d expected, but more of a comforting warmth. It was relaxing, to feel the cold air on my skin one second and have the rays of light warm me up the next.
“You sound like a guy who’s excited he can feel again,” Nyx chuckled.
Why is it you always say something pointless like this? I rolled my eyes.
“Excuse you. I make great statements, okay?”
Sure, I smiled. Acnologia, what exactly are we going to do once we get to Polaris’ place?
“I doubt getting in will be easy,” the Shadow Dragon said. “For one, it will be hard to have Polaris’ even meet with us in the first place.”
Are you even sure he’ll be there? I asked.
“Quite certain,” he said. “The old Dragon almost never left his home — even during the Dragon War.”
Sounds promising then, I nodded.
“Indeed. I am going to descend now. We are very close to Polaris’ castle.”
Got it, I said, alerting everyone else and then securing my grip on the Dragon’s neck.
“Wait, so let me get this straight,” Nyx said, just as Acnologia rose into the air, and then dropped down. “So this Polaris’ guy stayed at his place for most of the time the Dragon Clan was being murdered?”
“That is basically what happened,” Acnologia said, as he retracted his wings and passed through the thick layers of the clouds.
“Damn, that’s pretty savage,” Nyx said. “I’m kind of eager to meet the guy now.”
“Well then.” A voice rumbled in my mind. “Lucky. You.”
Acnologia extended his wings and floated in the air, just as we descended from the clouds.
A Dragon of silver scales hovered before us, his massive wings outstretched. Their length alone made Acnologia’s feel like a child’s. His eyes were a bright green, like rich emeralds, and stared at us intently, his annoyance clear within them.
“You have some nerve, Acnologia,” the old Dragon muttered, and his rage was obvious from his tone. “Colluding with the Eternals? You are a disgrace to the Dragon Clan.”
“Polaris, this is not the time for misunderstandings,” Acnologia said. “We have something to ask of—”
The old Dragon roared, and a blast of green fire surged from him. Acnologia plummeted down, narrowly avoiding the blast.
“How dare you?” Polaris muttered. “Ekliosis!”
All of a sudden, a pressure wave struck Acnologia from behind, taking all of us completely by surprise. We all fell off the backs of the Dragon in an instant. I looked up, watching as Irmeia and everyone else fell through the air. I turned around, and noticed that the ground was more than a mile beneath us.
That meant a lot of time to escape this fall.
I grit my teeth. Or a lot of speed to smash into the ground with.
“ZORAN!” A voice yelled. Freya streamlined her body and shot down to me, past everyone else between us.
“Freya, what are you—�
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“Shut up, you idiot,” she said, and put her arm around my waist. She thrust her hands toward the surface. “Guliora!” she yelled.
A massive twister blasted from the ground, and the dark, hazy winds consumed us within. The speeds of the swirling wind created a cross-breeze that pushed us, slowing our fall. All of a sudden, I went from flying through the air to gently falling through it.
In a few seconds, I touched the ground once again, landing with a tap instead of smashing through it. Everyone else made a gentle touch down as well, just as I had.
“Freya,” I said quietly, my eyes sparkling. “That was amazing.”
“You owe me one,” the elf said, just as the attack cut off.
A roar echoed as I looked past the dying winds, and my eyes widened.
Acnologia hurled through the air, smoked dissipating from his wings. The Shadow Dragon shot through the skies and went crashing into the castle, breaking stone and roof before sliding down one of the tower walls. Polaris’ roared loudly and shot toward his fallen form.
There was no mercy in his eyes.
“Stay here!” I yelled at everyone else, and charged toward the castle. I called out to Acnologia, but the Dragon did not respond to me.
Nyx, I said. Is Acnologia—
“He’s still alive,” Nyx said. “However, he seems to have taken on a great amount of damage. This fight is completely one sided at the moment.”
I saw the castle entrance before me, and as expected of a castle that did not anticipate friends or enemies entering it, this one had no barrier to entry. And so, I ran right through the open entrance, following the sounds of crunches and roars.
I raced forward with my high-leveled agility, and slid to a stop right in front of the ongoing battle. Acnologia stood beneath a tower, with Polaris’ standing a hundred yards in front of him. The Shadow Dragon breathed heavy, and a trickle of blood streaked his dark scales.
“You seem weaker for some reason, Acnologia,” Polaris said. “Or maybe I have gotten stronger since the last time we fought.”
How strong is he? I used my Analyze skill on him.
Name
Polaris, the Star Dragon
Race
Ancient Dragon
Level
???
That. Is. Not. Good. My chest thumped harder with every word. If my Analyze skill displayed question marks instead of numbers, then that meant that person was much, much stronger than I was.
“It is fine, Eternal,” Acnologia said. “I will have to battle this idiot to make him help us. There is no other way.”
“But you’re getting pummeled here,” Nyx said. “I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s true.”
The Dragon looked at us, and a chuckle rumbled from him. “Such an observation is void when one is holding back.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “Eh?”
“Is everyone away from the castle?”
“Yeah,” Nyx said.
“Very good.”
What’s going on here? I blinked.
“What are you doing, Acnologia?” Polaris’ asked. He opened his mouth, and a blast of green flames surged out of it. Acnologia attacked back as well, summoning his own blast of dark flames. The two beams of colored fire conjoined, and an explosion surged out from the contact point. Smoke and debris flew into the air, and I searched for the Dragons within.
“Zoran,” Acnologia said. “Get away from here.”
“What?” Nyx asked, but I had no such questions. I ran out the same way I had come, and glanced back at me as I did.
Acnologia’s dark form rose into the air. The Dragon hovered in the sky for a second, and then I heard a sole word in my mind.
“Limiter off.”
A silver flame burst around Acnologia, and a monstrous roar exploded into the skies. The very sound tore grass and dust from the ground around me. My heartbeat raced as I watched the dragon sink to the ground, disappearing behind the towers.
“Zoran.” Nyx’s voice trembled. “I just checked Acnologia’s info screen. The details all just turned to ‘???’.”
I froze, looking to the castle. Just how strong are you, Acnologia? I asked.
An opposing roar sounded now, from Polaris no doubt, but its intensity was nothing compared to the previous one. Acnologia sent its roar into the sky once more. I saw stones and rocks crumble within the tower, breaking from just the sound. I stopped running now, and stood still, my heartbeat frozen in fear.
Suddenly, a massive flame of silver exploded out, consuming the entire castle. What had been stone and glass just seconds ago quickly turned to pure fire. Crumbling and crashing echoed as the castle began to come down.
What’s going on in there? I wondered.
“Limiter off,” Acnologia said.
A shadow surged out of the flames, and the next thing I knew the Dragon thudded into the floor, sending mud and grass flying around as he did. I stepped toward him, and then froze, realizing he had something on the ground before him.
And that something was none other than Polaris, the Star Dragon.
The old Dragon was still alive. However, I could tell from the state of his body that he was in no condition to fight.
“You are merciless, Acnologia,” the Star Dragon muttered. “First colluding with the enemy, and then taking down your own strategist.”
“I did no such thing,” the Dragon said. “I am here to ask for your help, not to collude with the enemy. But if you have such desire of a death wish, I am more than happy to oblige.”
The Dragon chuckled. “Still the cheeky one,” he said. “How shall I help you then?”
“Time Travel,” the Shadow Dragon walked around and stepped over to my side. From the corner of my eyes I could see Freya and everyone else run up to us, no doubt confounded by everything they had just seen from afar.
And why wouldn’t they be? Even I was.
“What about time travel?” Polaris asked. “It is but a theory.”
I sighed. Oh, if you only knew.
“Who do you know of that was looking into time travel?” Acnologia asked.
“Who do I know of?” the Dragon chuckled. “Acnologia, I hardly meet a soul these days. You know of this. Do you really think I would know of some other creature or beast that was learning the knowledge of time?”
“Names, Polaris.” His voice was stern. “You surely have names of people who might do such a thing. Or does the Dragon that pursues knowledge not know these things?”
The Star Dragon raised its head, looking at us, and then lowered back to the floor. “I do not know names,” he said.
“Polaris, do not make me—”
“But I know of a man,” he continued.
Acnologia stopped, and switched into listening mode.
“There is a man that I came across before,” Polaris said. “One that seemed odd to me, but I could not tell why. I had not planned to see anyone that day, but for some reason this man had come across my path. And what was most odd was I hadn’t even been able to tell of his presence before I saw him.”
“How long ago?”
“I do not know, Shadow Dragon,” he said. “This man though, disappeared the moment he caught sight of me. However, before he was aware of my presence, he seemed to have been speaking to someone else, and I caught a phrase of what he spoke.”
“What was it?”
“The warriors from the future.”
I froze, and my eyes went wide at the sound of those words. There was no way he had meant anything but us. Warriors of the future was a generic term, but this man said from.
This is no mere coincidence, I realized.
“Where did you see this man?” Acnologia asked.
“Close to the Tsuyong river,” he said. “I was a mile or so from the banks.”
“That is useful information,” Acnologia said. “Thank you.”
“In return, I would appreciate you telling me why you need such a thing,” he said. “When I saw you, I
was certain you were colluding with the enemy. However, these two here—” He looked at me, and then at Irmeia, who had now walked up to us. “Seem like Eternals, but their strength says otherwise. It seems I was mistaken in doubting your faith to the Dragon Clan.”
“That is fine, Star Dragon,” Acnologia said. “As for what we need this for, it is a long story.”
“Stories are knowledge, Acnologia,” he said. “And my thirst for knowledge is unquenchable.”
The Dragon sighed and he started telling the Star Dragon about what was going on, about how we had come back from the future, and everything else. I intervened once, telling Acnologia mentally that this was not a good idea, and all he responded with was ‘I will take care of it’.
I spent the minute or so they talked checking up on everyone and making sure they were all okay. Well everyone but Viola of course, who was still avoiding me. I’d given up on her at this point.
“So that is the tale,” Polaris said when Acnologia finished. “Very well. In return for this knowledge I shall provide you safe passage home.”
A solid wall of light, the shape of an arch, emerged before us, just like the one in the cave.
“This will take you back to where you had come in from,” the Star Dragon said. “I will teleport those Volcanic Bears as well as that odd human creature you left in one of my caves.”
“Odd human creature,” Nyx chuckled and I smiled.
“Thank you, Star Dragon,” Acnologia bowed.
I ushered everyone through the portal. They were all confused about what had just happened, since they had heard neither of the Dragon’s voices, but I promised I’d explain it to them later.
“Oh,” the Star dragon said, just as I an Acnologia were about to enter the portal. “There is one thing I forgot to mention.”
Acnologia stopped before the arch of light. “That is?”
“Before that mysterious man left, I managed to use my Analyze skill on him,” he said.
“And?” the Shadow Dragon asked. “What did you find?”
“I got a Ga’em error message,” Polaris said. “A simple statement of three words.”
I stared at him, my heart thumping like a dragon roar.
“Does not exist.”