Dragon Magus 1: A Progression Fantasy Saga

by DB King

  “Time Magic, on a scale beyond mortal possibility!” Sylvia cried breathlessly. She gestured briefly with one hand and chanted a few arcane syllables. A faint blue light pulsed at her fingertips. “Just as I’d thought. Some vast, unthinkable Time or Spatial Magic spell was cast here a long time ago, probably before I was even born. It’s begun to unravel, which means that whoever has the will or skill to can seize a fraction of its power and bend it toward any other purpose.”

  “That’s how the Pale Haunter created those monsters, then,” Fenix reasoned, his eyes wide with awe.

  “What’s that thing?” Gabriella demanded, pointing at the energy sphere.

  “Almost certainly a repurposing of the Time Magic spell’s power,” Sylvia said.

  “Koshi is in there,” Raphael said grimly. “I’m going in. Everyone else should wait here.”

  “No!” everyone protested at the same time.

  “How can you be sure Koshi’s there?” Fenix demanded. “Your Meridian thing told you he was?”

  “Yes,” Raphael replied.

  “It’s too dangerous!” Eliza said. “We can’t even see what’s inside.”

  “Eliza’s got a good point,” Sylvia chimed in. “Let’s take a peek before we do anything, first. I’ve got just the spell for something like this.”

  The elf raised her hands and began a long, winding chant with many repeated phrases. Tendrils of dark, inky magical energy spiraled across her arms. Her eyes turned entirely black. After nearly two minutes of spell-casting, Sylvia lowered her hands. A shadowy mirror frame misted into existence before them. At its heart was a flawlessly planed surface of magical glass. With a gesture, Sylvia floated the mirror and aligned it with the energy sphere.

  A chilling sight appeared within the glass. Koshi swooped through the air on draconic wings of light emerging from his shoulder blades. Sunkiller blazed in his hands as he loosed golden arrow after golden arrow on a vast, skeletal creature of reptilian proportions. Massive fleshless wings, little more than bony appendages incapable of catching any wind, unfolded from the monster’s back, and it took to the skies as well, held aloft by magic.

  Rayne’s wings work like that! Raphael realized. This monster must have once been a dragon, then. And it could only be Platina, or what’s left of her.

  Koshi hit Platina with a barrage of arrows, knocking off shards of bone from the undead dragon, but Platina closed the distance, shrugging off the damage to her unliving frame. Her claws flashed, and Koshi fell from the sky, reduced to tatters of torn flesh.

  “No!” Raphael cried. He hefted his glaive and ran to Rayne, intending to fly right into the energy sphere, but Sylvia caught him in a chokehold and forced his gaze back to her shadowy mirror.

  “Wait, Raphael! Look carefully!” the elf hissed.

  Raphael forced himself to behold Koshi’s final descent, but he didn’t see any such thing. Instead, he saw Koshi alive and flying once more, pelting Platina with arrows. The same thing happened, with Koshi falling in crimson pieces, but he vanished a heartbeat into his descent, as did Platina. Then Koshi reappeared, golden wings spread wide, bow drawn against Platina. Once again, the same events unfolded.

  Raphael was beginning to understand, but it was Fenix who gave words to what was happening.

  “If the Time Magic here can be appropriated by sheer force of will, and there’s no being with greater willpower than the Dragon Knight himself, then what we’re seeing here is likely some sort of temporal loop, wrought into existence by Koshi,” the battlemage said.

  “But Koshi doesn’t know how to cast spells,” Raphael objected.

  “He doesn’t have to,” Sylvia said. “The sheer power of the unraveling spell is so volatile it is responsive to mere desire or will. I agree with Fenix. Koshi must have somehow trapped himself and the draco-lich in a temporal loop, in which the monster kills him over and over again.”

  “But why? Why would he do something like that?” Raphael asked.

  “Because of you,” Eliza said, placing her hand on Raphael’s shoulder. “And because of us. If the draco-lich manages to leave the junkyard, who knows what kind of horrors it will inflict on Lucia City and the rest of the world? Koshi couldn’t defeat it, so he did the next best thing: keep it here with himself to protect us all.”

  “Koshi the Dragon Knight,” Gabriella whispered in awe. “I grew up listening to myths about him. And he’s Raphael’s father? That explains so many things.”

  “Such a magnificent sacrifice,” Fenix said, “one truly befitting such a legendary hero.”

  “I... I can’t leave him in there,” Raphael said. “I have to save him!”

  “And you can!” Sylvia declared. “The temporal loop is so unsteady, physical contact is all you need to unravel it and restore the normal flow of time within its boundaries. But consider this. If you do so, the draco-lich will be free, Koshi might die anyway, and so will we, if it proves beyond our power. If you choose to leave it untouched though, the monster will remain in the junkyard, sealed away from the rest of the world. Choose, Raphael. Whatever your decision, I don’t think anyone here wouldn’t follow through with you on it.”

  Raphael made his choice instantly. “I want to save Koshi. You said the temporal loop is unsteady, Sylvia, so who knows when it will fall apart by itself, leaving Koshi to die here all alone and the monster free to leave? And we can’t afford to go back and ask for more Hell Drakes to come help us either, because again, we don’t know when the temporal loop will fail. But if we act now, we can fight alongside Koshi and defeat Platina.”

  “Excellent!” Sylvia clapped him on the back. “I’d expected nothing less from you, Raphael! Alright then, let’s bag ourselves a giant dragon skull to hang over my fireplace!”

  “What about the rest of you?” Raphael asked Fenix, Eliza, and Gabriella. “Would you fight by my side against an enemy like this?”

  “That’s Platina? The Gilded Death?” Fenix gulped, his face turning pale. “And yes, Raphael. Count me in. If you think we can take this draco-lich on, then I believe you.”

  “I will always stand by you, Raphael,” Eliza said fiercely. “No matter what.”

  “Well, I think you lot are utterly insane,” Gabriella announced. “But as Lucario’s princess, I cannot let such a threat to my realm go unheeded. I will fight alongside you, Raphael.”

  “Thank you, everyone,” Raphael said.

  “See that red, glowing orb amidst the draco-lich’s ribs?” Eliza pointed at Sylvia’s shadowy mirror. “That’s the monster’s spell core. It seems exposed, but according to Tiberius Rex’s Treatise on the Sublime Death, it’s almost certainly protected by layers of protective magic.”

  “If we can strip or overload those, we can reach its spell core. Raphael can then use his Deliverance spell to dispose of it,” Fenix said.

  “Fenix, you and I will attack Platina and draw her attention. Gabriella, if Platina lands, see if you can immobilize or at least slow her down,” Raphael instructed. “Sylvia, can you breach the protective spells Eliza mentioned?”

  “Leave that to me. There’s nothing I can’t breach.” The elf gave him a thumbs-up.

  Raphael turned to Eliza. “Come ride behind me on Rayne. I have an idea that just might work.”

  Eliza blinked, surprised at the offer, but she nodded. “Alright, Raphael. Whatever you need.”

  “Go, Raphael!” Sylvia summoned her sword and hopped onto it. “We’ll be right behind you!”

  Raphael and Eliza climbed astride Rayne, and with a shrill cry, the faerie dragon took off, streaking toward the energy sphere. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fenix take to the skies as well, using his Wind Blast spell to propel him through the air.

  “Hold out your hand,” Raphael said to Eliza. She cocked her head curiously, but did so right away. He placed his palm over hers.

  “Ra... Raphael?” she stammered, her cheeks reddening.

  Reaching into the depths of the Fourth Brazier, Raphael drew forth Skyfang. He
sent the sword down the threads that connected his soul to Eliza’s.

  Eliza gasped as Skyfang appeared in her grasp. It was a curved sword of golden light, slightly longer than her rapier. As it completed its manifestation, it sang its secrets into Raphael’s mind. The widening of Eliza’s eyes told him that the sword spoke to her as well.

  Skyfang was a mighty blade, capable of cleaving through rock and steel with the lightest touch. But it also allowed its wielder to fly and strike down his or her foes from the sky. At its wielder’s command, the sword could also project a devastating bolt of lightning, capable of annihilating all but the mightiest of foes. Once it did that, though, Skyfang would dissipate and had to be called forth once more from the Fourth Brazier.

  “Watch my back with this, Eliza,” Raphael said.

  “Always,” she replied, her voice breathless with awe.

  They struck the energy sphere, and time whiplashed back into order.

  Chapter 32

  Raphael had Rayne race toward Koshi first. The faerie dragon seized the back of Koshi’s collar and yanked him higher up into the sky just. Platina’s skeletal claws swung through the air where they’d been a heartbeat later.

  “What? Raphael? Eliza?” Koshi demanded, looking over his shoulder. His weathered features were awash with worry. “What are you doing here?”

  “Saving you!” Raphael cried. “And fulfilling my destiny!”

  Raphael’s answer seemed to have the right effect on Koshi. The Dragon Knight’s expression softened, and he nodded. “Very well, little Raph. Very well. It seems the time has come at last.”

  “Sylvia, Fenix, and Princess Gabriella are here too,” Eliza shouted, struggling to be heard over the roaring wind.

  “The elf and the battlemage?” Koshi grunted. “And wait. Princess Gabriella? How...?”

  “We’ll explain later!” Raphael said. “We’ve got to stop Platina first.”

  “Right you are, little Raph.” Koshi shrugged Rayne’s grip off and nocked Sunkiller once more.

  “Let’s split up. Strike at its flanks,” Raphael said, looking down. Platina was soaring upwards to them, her massive jaws agape.

  Koshi and Raphael swooped away from each other, barely avoiding the snap of the draco-lich’s fangs. Koshi raked Platina’s side with a barrage of golden arrows. Raphael hoisted his glaive and filled it with all the energy his draconic armor had absorbed during the battle against the Pale Haunter and the revenants.

  He hurled the polearm directly under one of Platina’s wing sockets. The weapon struck home with explosive effect, tearing away massive chunks of bone from the draco-lich’s body, before tumbling to the ground in smoking pieces.

  Platina roared in fury. Her tail lashed out. Its tip caught Koshi, who blocked the appendage with his forearms. Koshi’s draconic armor flared, absorbing the impact and reflecting it immediately upon Platina’s tail. The skeletal limb was blasted away, its spiraling momentum tearing Platina from her flight path and sending her massive body into an uncontrolled spin.

  Raphael reached once more into the Fourth Brazier and drew forth Sunkiller. It was an exact copy of the bow in Koshi’s hands. The draconic weapons could serve more than one wielder at a time, it seemed. He rained arrows down on Platina.

  Across the sky, on the other side of the draco-lich, Koshi noticed the bow Raphael wielded. His features crinkled in pride.

  Platina arrested her descent thirty feet before she hit the ground, but just as she reared her head back to confront Raphael and Koshi, a barrage of shadowy swords sliced into her jaw and fleshless neck, sending bone shards flying.

  Sylvia swooped by, cackling wildly as she hit the draco-lich again and again with her magical blades. Platina recoiled and shrieked. She swiped at the elf, but Sylvia slipped past the monster’s claws, before swinging around for another pass.

  Platina roared at the elf, the draco-lich’s lung-less torso somehow producing a titanic shockwave of sound. It blasted the elf off her sword. She fell, her arms flailing, blood leaking from her ears.

  “Sylvia!” Raphael cried. The elf knew spells that allowed her to fly, but he doubted she’d be able to cast any of them in time.

  “I’ve got her!” Koshi shouted, diving down into an arc that would intercept the elf before she hit the ground.

  Platina looped her massive body downward as well and streaked toward Koshi, jaws agape and claws spread wide.

  But Raphael had brought Rayne into the draco-lich’s path. He let go of Sunkiller and called forth Skyfang once more, so that he and Eliza held identical swords in their hands. Both he and Eliza leaped off Rayne and set their blades to work on the monster’s massive snout and brow.

  Raphael hacked and slashed with wild abandon, smashing Skyfang again and again into Platina and trusting in the strength of the Braziers to make his blows count. Eliza, in contrast, swept her blade in elegant arcs, carving entire sections of Platina’s face away.

  Eliza pirouetted gracefully in the air, then streaked past the draco-lich’s head. Raphael saw where she was heading and followed suit. Together, they swept their blades through Platina’s wing sockets. The draco-lich’s bony wings detached, severed where Skyfang’s blades had struck, though Raphael saw that Eliza’s cut was much cleaner than his.

  I should ask her to teach me some swordplay, he thought, as the Platina, suddenly deprived of flight, plummeted toward the ground.

  The draco-lich gestured frantically with its front claws. Arcane syllables fell from its lipless maw.

  It’s trying to cast a spell! Raphael hurtled downward, sword raised high in his hands. I’ve got to stop it before—

  A dozen of the largest Explosive Orbs Raphael had ever seen struck Platina. They blasted the draco-lich’s tail into powder, tore off her back limbs, and shattered parts of her rib cage. The shockwave also flung Raphael back up into the sky.

  He cast his gaze to where the Explosive Orbs had come from and spotted Fenix immediately. The battlemage had relocated to the top of another building, and he was already beginning to charge another cluster of Explosive Orbs.

  Platina hit the ground in a tremendous crash. As she tried to lift her head and stand, a sheet of ice materialized beneath her tattered front claws. The draco-lich scrabbled for balance momentarily before falling once more, her skull slamming against a crumbling tower and reducing it fully to debris. Gabriella gestured and chanted from atop the building they’d first arrived, conjuring sheets of ice wherever the draco-lich attempted to plant her claws and stifling her attempts to regain her balance.

  Rayne caught Raphael on its back, stopping his uncontrolled ascent into the sky. Eliza had already remounted the faerie dragon. She steadied him as Rayne swooped down once more.

  Sylvia emerged from between two ruined buildings, leaning heavily on Koshi’s shoulder. She held her hands out and chanted a long string of arcane syllables. Red light flared from the center of the draco-lich’s torso.

  “I think she’s stripping the protective spells around the monster’s core,” Eliza said. Raphael nodded. The elf could be doing nothing else.

  He leaped off Rayne’s back as they neared the ground and landed beside Koshi and Sylvia. Koshi gave him a grave nod and glanced at the elf.

  Sylvia was badly hurt. Her left leg was broken, with the exposed bone of her thigh peeking through her torn flesh, and blood bubbled from the corners of her mouth and her nostrils, a sure sign that her lungs had been injured. Still she chanted and gestured, stripping layer after layer of protective spells from the draco-lich’s core.

  Rayne, bring Gabby down here. Sylvia needs help, Raphael sent.

  By your will, Magus, the faerie dragon replied. With Eliza still astride its back, Rayne swooped toward the princess.

  “Last one,” Sylvia said, clenching her outstretched fist. A crackle of green light flared within Platina’s torso.

  “Go!” the elf gasped, shrugging Koshi away and sinking to the ground. “The both of you! Go!”

  The draco-lich seeme
d to realize her vulnerability. She reared her head back.

  “She’s going to breathe fire on us!” Koshi cried, raising his forearms over his face. “Put all your strength into your draconic armor, Raphael!”

  Raphael began to do so, but another cluster of Explosive Orbs cascaded on Platina once more, smashing the draco-lich’s skull aside.

  Koshi lowered his arms and met Raphael’s gaze.

  “Go,” he said. Then he opened his mouth and breathed forth a torrent of primordial flame right into Platina’s face.

  Raphael sprinted forward, closing the distance between him and Platina in a heartbeat. He barged through the splintered remains of her ribs and placed his hands on her spell core. It was massive, larger than his torso.

  The draco-lich shrieked in fury as she realized what Raphael was trying to do. She snapped her head down, but Koshi forced her jaws away with a continuous stream of elemental breath.

  Closing his eyes, Raphael focused the light of the Dragon Meridian on Platina’s spell core and reached out to her soul.

  What he found horrified him. Where the souls of the treants, skeleton warriors, bale-wights, and revenants had been filled with torment and misplaced rage, the draco-lich’s soul brimmed with hatred. Pure, boundless hatred, all-encompassing and unrelenting.

  Raphael dove deeper, seeking the source of this hatred. Was this what had driven the dragons mad all those centuries ago? Where had this hatred come from? Hadn’t the dragons once been the guardians and wardens of the world? What had made them decide to turn on their wards and drown all of existence in death and destruction?

  It is in our nature, a high, feminine voice said. A flickering platinum-hued flame appeared within the light of the Dragon Meridian.

  Platina? Is that you? Raphael responded.

  Indeed, Magus. I was once Platina, known also as the Justice-Bringer, and alongside my beloved champion Koshi, I fought for peace and justice across every horizon.