Chapter 29 - The End of the Second Tribulation (2)

At the same time, hundreds of yellow magic spheres slammed into me and caused a huge explosion of fire that covered the entirety of my transformed dragon body, which was more than sixty feet tall.

It was a shame for the mage, but the explosion of fire magic only felt like pinpricks to me; he had not been lucky in investing elemental fire magic into those spheres, considering that I was nearly impervious to the element of fire as a dragon.

As soon as the explosion cleared, I saw the two mages staring at me with dumbfounded looks. They had not expected to see an enormous creature more than sixty feet tall in place of a human.

An agonizing flare of pain came bursting into me before even a second had passed. I could sense that it came from my underbelly and looked to see that the blood mark the eldest had given me emitting bright light. I could not help but roar in pain and wonder at this curiosity.

Why had the blood mark not acted up when I was fighting the lich in my true dragon form and only chose to do so at this moment? The most likely reason, I thought, was because of that orb I had picked up after defeating the lich inside the chamber. Perhaps that was when the eldest had put a restriction on me.

When the pain died down a moment later, I could suddenly sense a ridiculous amount of magic, so much so that it felt like a living thing. This red-colored magic appeared in front of me, in the space between the two old mages and I. An instant later, the mass of red magic disappeared and on the spot where it had disappeared, stood a small, young girl that looked to be around thirteen years old.

“Good evening, everyone,” the girl said, her voice soft and musical, but tinged with something inexplicable. She had fiery red hair that split into two long tails reaching toward her thin waist; they were tied by two black bands of jewelries. She turned her alluring, delicate face which looked as if it would shatter into pieces any moment, toward me. Then she gave me a chilling, rosy smile. “Especially you, Verath.”

Although I did not recognize this girl, I instantly knew that it was the eldest. All the signs pointed toward this fact and even if there were no signs, one could not explain the inexplicable ancient feeling one gets from seeing the eldest, as if you were in the presence of something overwhelmingly ancient.

The eldest had most likely teleported here since he had discovered that I had broken the restriction to not transform into a dragon. So, I thought, my suspicions about the blood mark was right. It could indeed tell my location and warn the eldest of anything that went against the second tribulation. It has also taken the eldest a bare moment to respond too.

Ignoring me to turn back to the two old mages, the little girl gave a small frown upon seeing them. “Hmm..I do not remember seeing mages here,” she said to herself. Immediately afterward, a look of decision came over her.

And with a slight wave of her left hand, along with a scant moment later, the two old mages instantly burst into fire, screaming for a short second before their existences were burned into ashes, which fell to the ground in neat piles.

Her back still turned toward me, the little girl inspected the battlefield and the aftermaths of the battle. She nodded in satisfaction with a pleased smile on her delicate, white face.

“I am quite delighted with your success, Verath and I will forgive you for breaking the restriction since I had not foreseen these two mages interfering. And here I was sure that you were going to fail the tribulation, especially against that lich. But before I should congratulate you on your passing the second tribulation, there are still some humans left to kill,” she said, looking off to the distance at an end of the grasslands where the Sendarid camp followers were staying.

“Hmmm...” The girl's twin, purple eyes were focused on the one corpse that was out of place on the battlefield. It was the body of Princss Amara, who had been impaled by the long, earthen spike that had jutted out from the ground through her heart. “Was this your doing,” she questioned.

I gave a small nod in response.

“So you have an affinity with earth magic too. Interesting.” She gave me an expectant look when she saw me standing there blankly. “Well, what are you waiting for, Vearth. Go and kill the rest of these lower creatures so we can get home already.

I had a small, uncomfortable feeling well up inside me and I stopped for a while to analyze it. Was it a feeling of hesitancy? A revulsion to refrain from killing unarmed innocents? Strange, I could not, for all my observation skills, figure this feeling out. But I knew that I had no qualms about killing humans. After all, they were not even from my race.

Still, it was a slimy and muddy feeling, as if I was slipping into an abyss. I felt...tainted. Yes, that was most likely it.

'They are nothing. Just kill them all.'

That was intriguing. Where had that thought stem from? Oh well, I thought, I would leave it alone for the moment. I had a pressing task to do.

“Being sentimental is such a pure weakness, dear Verath. But nonetheless, I am pleased that you have killed all the soldiers in both armies, so I shall grant you a little boon and kill those humans there for you.” A small, bloodthirsty smile was on the eldest's face, which looked out of countenance with the body he had transformed into.

Strange. Perhaps the eldest could tell that I appeared to be a little reluctant, despite my indifferent face.

Not even waiting a moment for me to voice out a response, the eldest flew up into the air until he was just a small figure up in the sky. I could already see the crackles of magic that flowed out from the figure, forming a huge, red globe of magic. Then the enormous red sphere started veering downward at an insane speed, much faster than a discharged arrow by an expert bowman.

It looked like one of those stars or rocks I had luckily been able to witness falling down when I had been a young human. And that fallen star was headed toward the camps where the Sendarid followers were staying at.

The red sphere of magic slammed into the ground and exploded outward in an explosion that was heard even from here, almost a league away. There was nothing those humans could have done. They had no time to escape too, for the explosion encompassed probably more than half a mile diameter.

In just under two dozen seconds, the eldest had annihilated more than a thousand humans and the entire camping grounds of the Sendarid army. The dead at the camping grounds must have envied those that died on the battlefield, because they, at least, would have bodies to be buried.

The eldest came hovering back down to the ground beside me at a leisurely speed, as if he had not just taken more than a thousand human lives, as if he had not just created a deep crater where nothing would live ever again for the foreseeable future.

“Well then, that is that,” the little girl said in a cheerful voice. “I shall come back to pick you up after you have used up your two days break, excluding today. Just pour some fire magic into that mark when you are done.” Her twin violet orbs looked into my own emerald eyes with a steadfast mirth. “Spend it wisely, dear.”

A swirl of red magic surrounded the eldest and just like that, the little girl winked out of existence as if she had never been there, the only hint that she had been here was that landmark at the Sendarid camps.

Summoning my black colored magic, I transformed back into a human and looked around at the multitude of corpses for suitable clothing, preferably ones that were not bloodied or cut.

It took me a while, but after sifting through eight corpses, I held a good amount of clothing that I could wear and other miscellaneous items once I arrived at a nearby town. There should at least be a small frontier town somewhere nearby because this grassland was at the border between the two kingdoms; Laben and Sendarid.

I decided to head west using the sun as my guide. Sprouting black, leathery dragon wings to a suitable size, which spanned more than eleven feet, I shot forth into the air with a burst, holding the looted clothing in both hands. It would not be good to make new holes in the back of my new clothing so I traveled entirely naked. I also decided I would not need weapons so I just left them on the battlefield with the pieces of the black armor I had torn apart during my transformation.

Thus, I left the grasslands bordering the two kingdoms without even a backward glance at the thousands of humans I killed. I had left without even giving a decent burial to Princess Amara, the one I had served under temporarily.

The dead was the dead, after all. Nothing would help unless they could reincarnate, which was impossible.

And I did not know it then, but this day of the annual battle between Laben and Sendarid kingdom would forevermore be known as a massacre executed by one lone man holding a bastard sword in one right hand. He would be known as the God of War, an inhumane, monstrous human who would be cursed and loathed by the humans of both kingdoms.

But not by all the humans of both kingdoms, for this “God of War” would be secretly worshiped as a figure of love and admiration by secret, dark cultists.

Don't ask me how this tall tale spread. Even I have no clue, because on that day of the battle, I figured there was no one left alive to disseminate any information.

I guess dead men do talk, after all, though they had gotten most parts of what truly had happened wrong.

-----

After a day of flying naked and eating the raw and uncooked meat of a few beasts in the forests along the way, I had finally seen signs of a town. As I observed the dwelling from a far distance away, I saw that the town had tall wooden walls that surrounded its perimeter. This made me think that perhaps the town came under attack frequently.

And the signs of repair and battles only cemented that thought. In addition, the location of the frontier town, which was at the edges of Laben Kingdom certainly did not help its safety.

I quickly dressed myself in the clothing I had looted and was now in a plain, light green tunic with long sleeves and plain, brown leather pants and boots. I was also wearing undergarments, which I had furiously washed along the way in a river with the other clothing, until I was sure that they were clean.

Wingless and entirely human for the most parts, I went onto the traveled earthen path and headed towards town in a leisurely and slow fashion. I looked ahead with thoughts of taking a nice bath or perhaps even sleep on a bed.

They were luxuries which I could go without, but these little things were worth little pleasures, which was saying a lot in my case. I had also looted more than a hundred gold coins, which were now safely tucked inside my tunic in three fat purses.

I had two days left to make the most out of my break before the second tribulation ended. I wasn't sure of what would happen next since one could never rely on the eldest for a safe, normal routine day. Surprises lay ahead in my future like booby traps, and I was indeed very right about them and almost wished I had been wrong about it in the past.