Dragon Emperor 2: Human to Dragon to God

by Eric Vall

  “Yes, Father,” Alyona murmured as she fidgeted with the fabric of her dress. “I’ve memorized all the sutras and literature that lay within the Cave of One Thousand Sages.”

  “Hn.” Rodion nodded as he reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Alyona’s ear. “I would expect no less from my daughter.”

  I let go of Laika’s hand and moved toward Julia.

  “What are they talking about?” I whispered as I nodded toward the two immortals. “The Sutra of the Forty-Four Seals? Aren’t sutras just prayers?”

  “They are scriptures handed down by gods from their palaces in the High Heavens.” Julia’s knuckles were blanched bone white as she fanned herself nervously. “Many of them can be used to seal away evil or for miracles, especially for when demons emerge from rifts.”

  “Miracles?” A shudder went down my spine, and my eyes darted back to the demon gate. “What kind of miracles?”

  “It’s said they can give up their bodies to the gods.” Julia’s eyes narrowed as she snapped her fan shut. “That for no price, they can have the power of gods and even bring back the dead. But that’s a lie. There’s always a price, you can’t have that sort of power without a price being paid for it.”

  “A price?” I echoed with a frown.

  I heard a legend of a mage who practiced the sacred scriptures and attempted to conquer both the High Heavens and the netherworld. He was cursed by the High Heavens for his arrogance and fell from grace.

  Asher quietly whispered into my mind what he heard as a child, but all I could think was of Alyona falling into deviation again and that terrible stillness taking over her body.

  “It’s too late to stop them,” Ruslan said softly as he pointed toward the two immortals. “They’ve already started.”

  I turned, and my heart almost stopped at the incredible sight in front of me.

  Alyona and Rodion stood next to each other while a golden magical array encircled them. Then Rodion reached out and grasped one of Alyona’s hands in his as he lifted his free hand.

  This wasn’t the first time I’d seen magic, and I’d seen it plenty of times since I’d come to Inati. But this? This was just like the night Alyona had banished all the miasma from Hatra, and there had been a galaxy full of stars around her.

  Alyona’s exhilarating purity was entwined with a cool serenity I realized came from Rodion’s power. The mixture of energy embraced all of us gently, and my own power rose up in curiosity.

  It was so strange but so familiar at the same time, like I’d been meant to be here at this very moment. Something inside of me clamored to rise to the surface, and I could feel my spiritual sea sing in excitement.

  Suddenly, Alyona and Rodion’s power rushed upward as an invisible wind lifted their hair.

  “Evil may choose to rear its head and spit venom toward the high heavens,” Rodion’s free hand glowed gold as runic circles surrounded the demon gate, “and yet, instead of reaching the heavens, the venom will return and descend upon the evil one. Virtue cannot be destroyed, while evil, inevitably, will destroy itself.”

  Eleven magical arrays surrounded the demon gate and shifted rapidly as they glowed a brilliant gold. What looked like snowflakes descended from the magical arrays, and as they fell onto the ground, the corruption that had slithered out of the demon gate disappeared.

  “The sorrows of mortals come from their longings and desires,” Alyona’s voice echoed as she lifted her free hand and pointed at the demon gate, “from these sorrows and desires, fear comes. If freedom from these desires are gained, what cause for grief and fear will remain?”

  Eleven more magical arrays encircled the demon gate, except this time they glowed a bright silver as stars floated down from their outer edges.

  “Those who allow themselves to fall to longings and desires,” Rodion intoned as he drew another circle in the air, “they are like men who walk in the wind while carrying a torch. Inevitably, they will be consumed by the flames and fall to their own wicked desires.”

  The eleven magical arrays that appeared around the demon gate this time were pitch black, and smoke curled out gently from them. Alyona’s stars only glowed that much brighter because of the darker arrays, and their beauty could truly be appreciated.

  “Those who follow the truth as set down by the High Heavens, they are like one who has fought ten thousand and will fight ten thousand more.” Alyona slashed her free hand downwards as if it were a sword, and the magical arrays tightened. “They step through the gate, timid and weak, perhaps they may turn and flee from the battleground. But again, they may step into the battle and be slain. Another fate given to them is the prize of victory and return. Courage and virtue brought about by a resolute mind, destroying all burning hells that stand in one’s way.”

  The fourth and last batch of magical arrays were still eleven in number, but they were a dark crimson reminiscent of fresh blood. What looked like flames licked at their edges and flickered upward to the beat of a drum I could barely hear.

  They were like the drums of war, and my body tensed in preparation for the culmination of this sealing.

  “Thus is the truth perceived at last, it is thus.” Rodion’s echoing voice brought the beating drums to silence as he lowered his free hand. “Just as when one enters into a darkened cave, one enters with a torch, and the darkness dissipates. Only light remains to guide the way, and the brilliance of it will lead to the formation of the heavens and earth.”

  The forty-four magical arrays spun around the demon gate so quickly, I couldn’t even pick them apart by color. They merged into one massive array, and then they engulfed the entirety of the demon gate.

  “Cease!” Alyona called out, and the arrays spun to a sudden stop. “I call to you to cease!”

  “And thus,” said Rodion in a low voice as he closed his eyes, “will the darkness leave.”

  Just like that, the magical arrays and the demon gate disappeared. There was nothing in the air I could smell or sense, nothing left behind to even hint that there was once a hole in the fabric of the world here.

  “It is done.” Alyona slumped against her father as their hair slowly fell back into place, and the blinding glow that had surrounded them settled back inside of them.

  “And now, Lord Evan,” Rodion said as he turned to me, “it is time for you to uphold your end of the bargain.”

  “I’ll find the Sword.” I nodded as my spiritual sea came to a standstill inside of me. “And when I do, you’ll break Valerra’s death curse. Then we’ll talk about the future of my city and what you plan to do for Hatra.”

  King Rodion only smiled mysteriously in response as he supported the tired Alyona. Then he opened a portal that brought us back to the city, and I quickly made my way to the underground archives.

  The Sword of Hatra hadn’t been seen in a thousand years, so it stood to reason my best bet at finding a clue about the Sword was heading somewhere that had been untouched for a thousand years.

  I needed to find it, and I wouldn’t fail. Valerra’s life was on the line, and I wasn’t going to let her die.

  From what I’d been told by Alyona and Julia, the Swords of the Noble Houses were divine objects that not just anyone can possess or even wield. Even having noble or royal blood wouldn’t guarantee one would be able to wield it, you had to be a hero recognized by the High Heavens themselves.

  I’d saved lives before and risked my own in the process, but I didn’t know if that made me a hero or not. Still, that didn’t really matter in this situation because all King Rodion asked of me was to find the Sword of Hatra, not be able to wield it.

  Still, there was something about the Sword of Hatra I was sure I wasn’t remembering right. Almost like I’d heard about it or even seen it before.

  “It had moonstones in the shape of a crescent moon on the hilt,” I murmured to myself as I walked down one of the hallways of the underground library. “And the blade looked like it was made out of pure crystal.”

 
I blinked and wondered where on earth I’d seen that just as my head throbbed painfully.

  Then everything around me went dark as an ice cold pain lanced through my temples and brought me to my knees.

  The pain passed after a few moments, and I groaned as I stood up carefully and used the wall as a support.

  “The fuck was that?” I rubbed my temples as I blinked rapidly.

  The sudden chime of a bell startled me, and I glanced around the hallway. As far as I knew, there were no bells down in the archives at all.

  Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of white, and I turned to see a child dressed all in white and with white hair.

  “Hey, kid, come back!” I called out to the child and ran after them. “You shouldn’t be down here all alone, we haven’t explored all of it yet.”

  The kid remained just around every corner from me as I chased them through the underground library. I barely noticed that we’d left the already explored areas and gone further into uncharted territory.

  I didn’t understand how the strange child was able to stay ahead of me because I was stronger and faster than I’d been as a human. There was no way a kid, even if they weren’t human, would be able to outrun me.

  This went on for what felt like hours in the windowless complex. I had no way of knowing exactly how long I chased after him or even where in the underground library I was.

  All I knew was that I was in front of a giant set of doors I’d never seen before, and something inside of it was calling to me. I’d seen the kid slip inside, but I didn’t know what was waiting for me behind those doors.

  The doors were unlike the rest of the library. They were carved out of a dark blue stone I was sure was marble and not the bluestone the city had been built from. There were even carvings of moons and stars along the entirety of the doors and a dragon hidden behind the celestial imagery.

  My instincts took over, and the moment I placed my hand on the doors, they swung open for me, and I passed through them. The doors shut closed behind me, but I wasn’t scared. Somehow, I felt like I was home and there was nothing for me to be worried about here. Nothing in Hatra would ever harm me because the city knew I belonged to her.

  I couldn’t see the kid anywhere, but what I did see knocked the breath from my lungs.

  It was a great but dusty hall made out of a dark blue marble that glimmered as if thousands of stars were embedded in the stone. On either side of the cavernous hall were life sized statues in moonstone alcoves that gave them an ethereal glow, and the statues all wore crowns and held a stone sword in their hands.

  I stepped closer to one of the statues and realized the stone sword was exactly how I’d thought to myself the Sword of Hatra looked like. Carved on the hilt was a crescent moon made up of smaller carved stones I knew were in the place of moonstones.

  Dust covered the carved plate at the foot of the statue, so I bent and wiped the grime away with my hand.

  “Tristan, Lord of Hatra el Shamash,” I read out the name on the carved plate and looked up at the statue.

  Tristan was a handsome fox Demi-Human, but his features were familiar, like I’d seen him in person before. But there was no way that was possible, because he had to have lived more than a thousand years ago.

  “Where have I heard your name?” I tilted my head as I tried to remember. “Lord Tristan, did Pops talk about you? Or did I hear about you during one of Lady Julia’s lectures about Hatra’s history?”

  I suddenly remembered the genealogies of the Lords of Hatra I’d looked through on the first day of my lessons with Julia. Ruslan was the current Lord of Hatra, and he’d inherited that title from his father who had passed years after the attack on the city. He’d even inherited part of his name from his father, since it was tradition for the ‘an’ to be present in the name of every Lord and Heir to Hatra.

  This wasn’t just the statue of some random ancestor of Ruslan, this was his father and my grandfather. This was the statue of the last proper Lord of Hatra and the last man known to wield the Sword of Hatra.

  He was the grandfather I never had the chance to meet. In fact, I never met any of my grandparents back on Earth. My mom back on Earth and Aunt Emma told me they’d died because of some medical condition long before I was born, and I never questioned it because people died all the time from illnesses.

  But this wasn’t the case with Tristan and Ruslan’s mother. They’d died some time after Hatra had been attacked by demons, demons who wanted nothing more than the total destruction of the city. Then the corruptive miasma engulfed the city in deathly waves for centuries.

  My father grew up an orphan in a broken city with the mantle of Lord on his shoulders all because some Demon Lords plotted and wreaked havoc.

  And now an ancient dragon was about to die because of those very Demon Lords unless I was able to find the Sword.

  The magnitude of everything hit me at once, and I couldn’t help the righteous anger that coursed through me because, once again, my family had been taken away from me before I even had the chance to meet them.

  “I promise you I will protect our people,” I bit out angrily as I looked up at my grandfather’s statue. “Hatra will never again suffer the way she did. I will find our lost Sword and use it to rebuild our city. You will be able to rest in peace.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to calm my anger before I glanced back to Tristan’s marble face.

  “You know, I wish I could have met you,” I murmured as I bent and trailed my fingers over the carved name plate. “How would you have reacted to Ruslan adopting me? To all of this?”

  Just as my fingers slid off the carved plate, I heard the peal of a bell and looked around me to find the source of the sound.

  But I quickly froze, and the breath stilled in my lungs. The old, abandoned hall had suddenly shifted and changed into a pristine chamber without a single speck of dust.

  And most importantly, the tip of an extremely sharp sword now dug into my back, and the heat of a wild flame lurked around me even though I couldn’t see any fire.

  “Who are you and how did you get in here?” It was a man’s voice, all cool and controlled, that echoed in the hall around us.

  My heart skipped a beat as I slowly raised my arms in the air.

  Chapter 14

  “Take it easy,” I said as my mind raced a million miles an hour. “I was just paying my respects.”

  “These are the sacred catacombs of the Lords of Hatra el Shamash,” the man snapped. “Not just anyone can be in here. So I will ask again. Who are you and how did you get in here?”

  I chewed on my lips as I tried to figure out what the fuck was going on. There had been no one inside of the hall when I’d come in, not even the strange kid I’d been chasing. The dust had been piled up on all of the statues, and it smelled like no one had been in here for centuries.

  So, how did this guy get the drop on me?

  And who the fuck was he?

  “I could ask you the same thing,” I replied as I tried to glance over my shoulder, but the tip of the sword dug an inch deeper into my back. “You said this is a sacred place, so why are you here waving around a sword?”

  “Obviously because there’s an intruder,” the man replied in an icy cold tone. “I was alone, and then you appeared out of thin air. How do I know you’re not a threat to my city, especially when you refuse to answer such a basic question?”

  “I came here through the doors,” I replied. Honesty was the best option since I was being threatened with a sword at my back. “I was just following a kid dressed all in white.”

  “That’s impossible.” The man took a step forward, and the tip of the sword pressed further into my spine. “Only those who carry the blood of Hatra el Shamash or a sigil allowing them passage may enter through those doors.”

  “I do carry that blood,” I said calmly. “I am of the bloodline of Hatra el Shamash and have promised my future to her glory.”

  The sword t
ip dug a fraction deeper into my shirt, and I suppressed a sigh.

  “Again, that is impossible.” The heat in the room rose as the man snarled, and the crackling of flames trailed behind his words. “There is no one carrying Hatra’s blood I do not know of, and all the sons and daughters of this city are accounted for. Unless you’ve stolen that blood for some nefarious reason. In which case, you will be brought to trial.”

  Well, fuck.

  “Listen, this is some sort of misunderstanding,” I began as I started to slowly turn around, but I trailed off once I saw the man at my back.

  There was no way this was possible.

  The man before me was Tristan, alive and well. He looked just like his statute and just like Ruslan, with brilliant crimson hair and eyes so green they were like emeralds. Crimson ears twitched atop his head, and an equally red tail was slung languidly over his shoulder. His robes were a dark azure, like the ones I was wearing, but they were trimmed with stars and moons along the hems.

  In his hands was the sword I’d seen in my dreams once before and the very sword Tristan held in his statue. It was the Sword of Hatra, and it was just as beautiful as I’d known it would be. The blade gleamed as if it were ice, and it was like the light of a thousand stars was trapped inside of it.

  Maybe I was hallucinating, or I had slipped and hit my head on the floor.

  “I will ask once more,” Tristan growled with the Sword pointed at me, and his face was twisted in a scowl. “Who are you and how did you get in here?”

  “Isn’t it polite to introduce yourself first before you ask for someone’s name?” I replied in an attempt to buy some time and see if this man really was my grandfather.

  The man blinked for a moment before he smirked at me.

  “I am Tristan,” he declared confidently as the Sword in his hand glowed with power. “I am Lord of Hatra el Shamash. Now, I’ll ask again, who are you, and how did you come to be here?”

  Shit.

  This was either an elaborate dream, or I had somehow ended up in the past. If it was the first option, I wasn’t sure how it would have happened unless the dust in the hall was capable of making people hallucinate.