Chapter 116 - Thwarted
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“Fools! Do you honestly think that you could put one ever me?!” Eirian said with a haughty laugh. “On me, who have lived all these years without being commanded or controlled by any other being?! I have waited millennia just for this chance to come, and now that it’s here, do you really think I would just let insects like you foil my plans?”
‘What does she mean by that?’ thought Benette who held Dagon tightly in his arms. ‘Just who is she? And how old is she supposed to be?’
“E-Eirian... you promised!” Dorin said as he crouched on the ground, trying to push himself up.
“Shut up, Dorin,” Eirian snapped at him.
Dorin’s mouth snapped shut.
“I have raised you to perfection, but your mother’s paranoia sealed your potential, and your trip here has turned you soft and useless,” she sneered. “You were the perfect golden child who viewed all others as far below you, yet now you learned of hierarchies and call lesser beings your friends. You even deem them equals when they are nothing but maggots beneath our feet!
Eirian leaned over to watch Dorin struggling on her hold on him. She didn’t notice a certain medic slowly crawling towards them.
“And now that you have locked your id in your Phasma core,” she continued, “you have even lost the fun in you.”
She frowned at Dorin.
“Now I’m thorn between letting you keep that core for you to reach your full potential, or simply shattering it myself to get the old Dorin back.”
She gave an annoyed sigh.
“But I guess the time isn’t ripe yet... my gift for you is not yet complete, there is still one key missing...”
Eirian’s eyes swiveled towards Benette who seems to be a couple of feet closer to her.
“Now, Dagon!” Benette threw the dragon Child at Johan’s direction.
“Daa!” Dagon shouted, his short arms outstretched. Small red, leathery wings sprouted on his back as he swooped towards the fire mage and spat crimson flames at Eirian!
“Miss.” Eirian snarled.
The flame swerved to her side, but Dagon has already landed on Johan’s back.
The fire mage raised his head, his red eyes burning. He rose from where he knelt and sent a flaming fist towards Eirian.
“Thwarted.”
His fist felt like it hit a curved wall as it slid to the side.
Eirian Looked condescendingly at him and opened her mouth once more.
“Doused and extinguished flames would never burn again.”
The words seem to hit Johan like bullets.
He felt his flames recede, the embers within him, dying, but with a shout from both him and the dragon child, he threw his fist down to the earth and called on sharp spikes of bedrock to appear from beneath Eirian’s feet.
“Crumble to dust.”
Johan watched wide-eyed as the words sent the spikes back to the earth as sand.
But the fight and the dragon child’s presence had weakened Eirian’s hold on the rest of his classmates, as the people around him began to stir.
“Johan, we need to keep her mouth shut!” he heard Xander call from behind him.
“I’ve made a spell to counter her, but she’s too strong...” called Mordecai. “Are you sure she’s just an enchantress?”
“Dagon!” Johan called to the child on his shoulder. “Go to Mordecai and wake up the rest!”
“Eirian!”
It was Dorin, shining golden with streams of lightning cursing around his body. Dark clouds accumulated on top of them, covering the stars that littered the darkening sky.
“That is enough!” cried Dorin as lightning came rushing towards the enchantress.
“Insulate.”
The lightning fell harmlessly around her.
“Do we have to do this again?” she asked him. “The reason why I had to erase your memory in the first place, was...”
“Because I didn’t let you kill my friends,” Dorin replied. “You wanted to take be back home and threatened to kill them when I told you I wanted to stay. I had to fight you, then you erased my memory after feigning surrender.”
“And didn’t I let you stay?” said Eirian with a pout. “I had no idea you would fight me so seriously just to save them. But didn’t I make everything nice again?” she added with a smile. “I even took your memories so that things won’t get awkward between you guys!”
“That’s because you showed them your true nature. And you have always hated it when people see that ugly side of you.”
Eirian stared down at Dorin.
Her purple eyes turned so cold that those who saw felt a shiver run down their spine.
“The spell is complete!” Mordecai called from behind. He clapped his hands together, igniting a golden pentagram that rose from the ground and dispersed into the air. All the people around them were finally able to move.
“What is the meaning of this?” Dean Alcione called to Eirian. “Stop this insolence this instance before we take drastic measures to subdue you!”
“Like what?” Eirian glared at him. “Leopold Louise Alcione, you are all talk, just like your father and the one before him. You have no power at all.”
The dean opened his mouth. A feeble voice came out, the words, hardly intelligible.
Eirian gave a loud laugh, which was cut short by a fiery breath from Dagon.
“I knew we couldn’t trust you!” Johan was suddenly behind her. His fist was aflame once more, as Dagon held on his shoulders and spat another jet of flames.
“You are getting on my nerves!” Eirian spat at the two who were at mid lunge. “Drop to the ground”
Dagon yelped as the two of them stopped in mid air and fell to the ground at a 90 degree angle.
“Impossible! How can her charms still work?!” Mordecai gasped.
“Foolish imbecile. Do you really think that I am merely an enchantress?” Eirian asked, facing him. “No one here can stop me, certainly not a puny little dragon cub.”
“Shut up, silver tongue.”
Eirian’s eyes widened and turned towards the gravely voice that spoke.
“How dare you assault my student and my ward!”
She was too slow to react as a gigantic taloned hand swiped at her from above.
It grabbed her head and rose her to the air, as a gust of wind passed over the remaining students on the ground.
They were aware of something massive passing overhead, but could see nothing in the darkness.
Nothing, but fleeting shadows.
“Lord ombra!” Dorian called out to the senior dragon.
“Weak.”
They faced towards the back, where the tall dark dragon lord stood with his left arm outstretched.
This arm was lost in his dark clothes that seem to expand and reach two meters, at the end of which, engulfed in shadows, hang Eirian, her mouth held shut by the taloned hand.
“Stand up, Johan of the dragon blood, and show me your mettle,” he called to his student. “Is that all you are made of?”
“I’m up! Stop being so noisy!” Johan frowned as he rose from the ground.
“So... she’s a silver tongue...?!” Xander asked wide-eyed. “But... there have never been a new silver tongue ever since...”
“Ever since the Dark revolt...” Mordecai finished for him. “that means...”
They were alarmed when a crack resounded in the air and saw Eirian pulling her head up from a snapped dragon claw, her mouth slightly got free from Lord Ombra’s hold.
She stared at the dragon lord and spat out words in dragon tongue that made Ombra snarl at her.
“You dare command me?!”
His golden eyes widened, while two more pairs appeared on either side of his head. The dark hair that fell over his face flared and turned into black flames.
“Stand down, dragon, this is not your fight!” Eirian suddenly called to him. “We have made a pact where you can not intervene!”
“I remember no such pact with you!” Lord Ombra snarled, his mouth opening unnaturally wide, showing long incisors lining his elongated jaw.
“Let me go, Ombra ########## of the Shadow dragons.” The words in dragon tongue sounded more guttural than anything the mortals have ever heard.
“You, who are you?” Lord Ombra asked the woman as he slowly opened his claws.
Eirian dropped elegantly on the ground though her clothes were slightly torn. She dusted herself and faced Lord Ombra once more.
“I guess you no longer remember,” she replied, “you were just a young fledgling back then, after all.”
“Well, I’m not under any pact, and neither are my friends!” said Johan who rushed towards Eirian once more.
“Let’s do this together!” Xander called from behind him.
“That’s right, Eirian,” said Dorin who joined the fray, sending another rain of lightning towards his childhood friend. “I will just have to stop you again!”
“Really, Dorin?” Eirian glared at him. “Aren’t you sick and tired of this yet? What’s so fun about getting told by old people what to think and what to do?”
“Much better than getting lied to!” cried Johan he leapt to the air to reach her.
“Fall.”
The fire mage fell straight to the ground with Dagon in tow.
“Watch it, silver witch. Harm the young dragon, and I shall have enough reason to attack,” snarled Lord Ombra who merely stood at a side, watching.
“Are dragons so fragile, Ombra?”
Eirian gave him a crazy grin which made smoke seep out of his nose.
“We’re not through with you yet!” spat Venet who entered the fray, sending sharp gusts of wind towards Eirian.
“A mere breeze.”
The attack gently blew at Eirian’s locks.
“Quagmire!” Xander called, turning the ground into a bog.
Eirian looked at her sunken feet with mild annoyance.
“Dorin, now!” yelled Xander.
Eirian looked up in alarm, but she was too late as several bolts of lightning rained down upon the muddy bog.