CHAPTER 71 – EARTHLY CONDUITS


    Zora didn’t know how long she could keep up the guise of a faithful servant. After seeing the horror, they brought upon Port Caliber she was ready to defect and continue her original mission south. Part of Zora needed to see for herself. She had enough of listening to men tell her things were different. Sure, the evidence was blatant and abundant, but sometimes you just need to see for yourself. The only problem was, if Zora left now, would the dark lord be able to prevent her from getting to Morticomb Caverns?


    She had seen enough of MagnaThora to last her a lifetime, maybe even two. Zora needed physical confirmation that her home and family were gone, until then she could not fully commit to anything else, no matter what these men told her. Unfortunately for her, at the moment she had no way to leave. Her along with Fathom, the Emissary, and the dark lord Malinor were under the Burning Mountains, trapped in a cave surrounded by massive stalactites and stalagmites, pinning them in. Before laid a great hibernating beast.


    To the dark lord’s credit, Zora was continuously impressed with his method of travel to the subterranean levels of the Burning Mountain. Malinor seemed to have vast knowledge of the magic in MagnaThora. He pulled on many different sources, not just the dark arts. Zora couldn’t help but also notice that the Emissary also delved in the combined mystical arts of MagnaThora. The only thing she couldn’t really figure out was which of them was apprentice to the other. Had Malinor surpassed his training with the Emissary or was the foul man recruited by the Dark Lord and merely mirrors his magical mastery? Either way Malinor clearly surpassed everyone in power and prowess.


    He even used the Emissary’s chest gem against his own will, or at least that’s what it looked like when they were back at Caliber. Malinor placed his hand on Fathom’s chest and it inside the creature’s heart glowed red. From the outside it had looked like a red crystal emanating light. With his other hand, the Dark Lord Malinor pulled the light from the Emissary’s gem. By connecting the two channels of energy, he shot a red line through the earth and used the yellow light from the Emissary’s gem to open a portal. On the other side of the portal was a familiar sight Malinor had encountered a long time ago.


    Zora was equally in awe of where Malinor had brought them. Never before had she ever thought in her lifetime that she might be in the presence of the founder god. The demigod that her entire kingdom was named after. The beast that lay before them was at least five times the size of Fathom, with many similar but varying characteristics. One of the biggest similarities had to be the embolden horizontal lining of their scales going over their bellies.


    The minute details were all on point. Fathom had the same scales, the same horn textures, the same flame coloring, everything of Fathom was a clear derivate of the ancient primordial beast. Then it opened its eyes. The splendor made all the words swimming about in their heads vanish with great haste. The dragon god regarded them immediately and began to stand. The movements sent shivers and cracks through the floor and roof of the cave. Dust fell from the cracks in the roofs. As soon as the cracks were created they just as quickly seemed to heal themselves.


    The dragon god’s eyes were truly something to behold. It looked like hundreds of perfect gold bars spread around in a radial formation, with black vertical slits going up and down the middle. Two silhouettes of the pure darkness surrounded by resplendent brilliance. It almost spoke to them, simultaneously putting the intruders at ease while also igniting their senses. It would take a couple minutes for them all to regain their wits. Fathom moved first, getting close, sniffing first like any MagnaThoran animal, and then wrapping himself around the god, like any brood would their parent.


    That’s what snapped Zora out of it. Anything her Fathom liked that much was okay by Zora. She accepted the dragon god and bowed down to one knee. The Emissary saw her and laughed. He took a dagger out of a satchel bag with a clear gem on its cross-guard and handed it to Malinor.


    “Wait.” Zora said.


    They did not.


    The dragon god leaned back. Its eyes flared betrayal and unleashed an unyielding inferno upon them. Fathom skirted Zora out of the way just in time, they almost hid under the great dragon as it spewed its great flame. The dark lord’s armor twitched all over his body as he began to cook in it. It almost looked alive. The Emissary twisted the gem harnessed on his chest and screamed in pain. He kept twisting until the gem rotated one half rotation. The gem clicked into place and changed colors from yellow to white-blue. The same shine covered the Emissary’s body. He grabbed the dark lord’s cloak and the shine transferred onto his roasting body, shielding him from the fires just before he succumbed to them. The dragon god would not stop until they were ash. Malinor worried if its power was endless, infinite; a greedy smirk splashed across his dirty sweaty face.


    They were no longer burning, but the sheer force of the fireblast was keeping the dark lord and the Emissary from getting any closer. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    “All that you have taken in my name. All that I have given you. You break the compact. You are despicable to the bitter end human. I will see your bones in a pile.”


    The fire changed colors to a wavering orange and knocked them off their feet. Fathom looked back at Zora. She had never seen this expression before in her dragon’s face. She tried to make sense out of it. Fathom looked…worried. She met his eyes and nodded her head firmly. He wisped around and got under her and picked her up, they were in flight-ready position.


    The orange flames danced around the Dark Lord and the Emissary as they tried to get to their feet. The dragon god wrapped red flames, followed by yellow around the orange cyclone. The dragon mixed them together and slipped through them, snatching the Emissary’s gem off his chest. He fell to the ground and the dark lord flipped to his feet. As the white-blue shine began to fade away on both of them, Malinor somehow forced a lunge towards the dragon god, the jewel ornamented dagger still in his hand.


    Malinor took a deep breath, jumped up, spun out of the fire and through the dagger at the dragon god’s neck. Right before it made contact he teleported to the other side of the room. He pulled from his pouch a ruby gem. Malinor mumbled something as he rubbed the ruby, it turned into six spikes. Malinor used the dagger to carve runes into the spikes and then threw them into the air. They stopped from falling and hovered suspended in the air. The runes on each one glowed. The ruby spikes floated together in a ring. Malinor flung his hand to the ground and the ring followed, phasing through the dragon god. The ring of ruby spikes vanquished the fires. Malinor spun the spikes around with embellished hand motions and tore the dragon god’s wings to shreds. After grounding the dragon god, he took his time with the dagger.


    “It’s practically impossible to kill a god,” said Malinor.


    “Don’t do this!” pleaded Zora.


    “Are you not listening to me? I don''t even think I can.”


    Zora exhaled. She rubbed the top of Fathom’s head.


    The Dark Lord went on. “…But I can try!”


    Malinor jammed the dagger into the dragon’s belly. It began to spasm at the sight of the dagger. The blade glowed and Malinor twisted the handle, turning the blade in the wound. The dragon cried out. It wretched in pain and then he saw it. Malinor watched a glimmer cross the body of the god.


    Malinor clicked the gem on the dagger right before the glimmer reached the wound and then plunged the blade even deeper. The gem, along with his hand, went into the wound. The glimmer started to heal the wound and then it was sucked into the gem-dagger. Dracobra stumbled back, confused. Malinor pulled his hand from the wound as he was tossed back by the enormous dragon, the gem-dagger now lit.


    Zora was watching them kill the dragon god. Something was not right. The odds looked in their favor. This thing before her was supposed to be a god. It looked like one next to Fathom, but somehow Malinor was ruining it. He was making the dragon god seem…puny. Zora thought she should do something. That thought alone scared her. If she tried to intervene it would mean endangering Fathom and her own safety. Nothing was going to stop them from completing their mission. That’s when Zora saw it. This was Malinor’s destiny. I part of her wondered if it was her destiny to witness.


    The dark lord twisted the gem on the dagger, and it changed color just like the one on the Emissary’s chest. The Emissary clapped powder into the air and pushed it forth, it quickly picked up pace and turned to flakes in the air. When the dragon god tried to breathe fire, the flames hit the flakes and captured by explosions of ice. Malinor jumped along the ice crashing to the ground and impaled the softest part of the dragon’s neck, right underneath its chin horns. The blade was sharp enough to cut through to the beast’s brain.


    It twitched and Malinor pulled the dagger out, the gem now empty once again. He stepped back and watched the god beast squirm. Zora cried out. Something deep in her heart pained for the dragon god. Zora sobbed next to Fathom who seemed to console her with his wing. She thought about being killed by your own worshippers and how awful it must feel. Zora sympathized with the dying god.


    The god dragon writhed in its own pain, paralyzed by bewilderment. It could not heal. The wound in its neck grew. It had no choice. Dracobra lit a golden fire and crawled through it in a circle lighting itself ablaze. It shrunk down, malting out of its immense body and taking the form of a more serpent like creature with many small legs, and a big head. It spun around in the air now painted gold and black and slid up around Malinor’s head. Its body adorned him like a stole. This was Dracobra’s anointed chosen one. Malinor had conquered the will of a god into submission. Together with its power and his force they would be unstoppable.


    “No.”


    The Dark Lord Malinor took the serpent god Dracobra off and beheaded it. The tail fell to the ground and out poured blighted wretch. The dark lord held the head of the dragon god in his hand, looking into its lifeless eyes.


    “Finish it, then.” The Emissary insisted.


    Malinor ate the head of the dead dragon god.