Heiga Rajmund, wielding her spear in her arms, dashed forward alone and made a sudden stop, her foot dragging through the surface of the dead ground. She swung her spear around and pointed at the dragon of Death which appeared recently from underground in Deltalago. It was currently hovering above the city, half of which had been “ashed” into nothingness. Its breath attack reduced everything into ashes. There was no exception. Anyone or anything that got caught into its breath attack was a goner. 

“Men! Fire!” She bellowed.

There was a group of twelve fire mages closing in right behind her.

“Elementals of fire, heed my call, grant me the powers to defeat the foe in front of me in the sky: Fire lance!”

A union of over ten voices shouted aloud, and twelve lances of fire appeared out of thin air, all pointing at the dragon afar.

“DO NOT MISS! AIM!” She barked, “FIRE!”

The fire lances flew fiercely toward the dragon, making a sharp and high-pitched sound along the way. Eleven of them were able to hit its target and exploded spectacularly with smoke spreading out. The mages cheered in unison, to which she shouted.

“SHUT IT! And fall back!”

She knew for certain that it wouldn’t be able to vanquish the dragon. In fear of inevitable retaliation, she ordered her men to retreat at once. She wanted to be gone before the smoke cleared. She had been performing guerilla warfare against the dragon for a while now. After meeting up with her father in Kaoze, she volunteered to go back to Delalago and put up resistance against the dragon. She was fully aware of the difficulty of her task and claimed that her goal was not to defeat the dragon but delay its advance. All members of the Rajmund had been taught of Kozma’s words. Whether to believe or not, one of his teachings was that no mortal could kill a dragon.

“Only a betrayer of the wheel may harm the dragon…,” she whispered while retreating with her group of mages. The royal family did not know who “a betrayer of the wheel” was and whether such a person even existed. However, her father, the king, claimed that Kamil Fenchel might be one.

“Princess, the dragon is searching fanatically!”

“Right, get a move on! We are getting into the tunnel!”

They had been digging underground tunnels around the city to move around without interference from the dragon. Soils had proven to be the only effective shield against its breath of death and gave them a means to fight back. Alas, their legendary hero, Kozma, was correct. So far, nothing harmed the dragon.

“What does a betrayer of the wheel have that we do not?” she mused. Sadly, she had no answer for it. What they had was the connection with elementals. A dragon was a God’s creation, a being from the celestial plane.

Those from the top of the pyramid had powers to overwhelm those in lower planes. Mortals, being at the bottom of the pyramid, had little ways to combat powers from the above. Elementals could mount a challenge although they would ultimately lose in all-out war. A betrayer of the wheel was a mortal that would act as a bridge between the elemental and the material plane, consolidating powers of both planes to mount a better challenge against celestial beings. They would still lose regardless if Gods were serious in what they did. Thankfully, Gods being Gods, they weren’t always predictable. Additionally, there were more Gods than Life and Death. The Gods of elementals also belonged to the celestial plane although they were lower ranked than the God of Life and Death. It’s important to note that the God of fire had no reign of the elementals of fire. Elementals themselves had no leader and they had no interest in taking orders from another being from an entirely different plane. Meanwhile, the elementals often considered betrayers of the wheel as one of their own and they often went out of their ways to help them. Ironically, the Gods were the ones who let such betrayers of the wheel be born. It was an interesting dynamic and a delicate balance that kept the three different planes intact.

“Princess!”

Where she ended up was a large underground chamber where tens of soldiers and mages were gathered together. Loose bags of supplies were seen in each corner of the place. There were no wounded. It was either survival or death when it came to the dragon. Anyone who was caught by his breath of death would turn into ashes. In a tragic sense, the 100% fatality if hit had kept the affair rather clean and lean. There was no need to spend extra effort to care for the wounded and logistics required for it. The chamber was lit brightly by several floating balls of fire near the ceiling.

“Report!”

One of the soldiers saluted as he reported, “Princess, we’ve evacuated all survivors out of Deltalago. All of them are on their way to Kaoze. They will be redirected elsewhere from there on.”

“Have you found my brothers? Any of them?”

“No, ma’am. No sign of any more royal members, I am afraid.”

The others in the chamber looked down, looking depressed. The Rajmund royal family was respected and well-liked. It wasn’t pleasant for any of them that the royal family was decimated. One of the soldiers raised his arm, requesting to speak, to which she gave him a firm nod.

“Speak!”

“We have yet to investigate the pit.”

The pit was where the dragon appeared. It was also where the royal palace sank.

“It’s too dangerous to investigate the pit,” another chimed in.

“But it’s where the princes should be!” another exclaimed.

Heiga had no interest in becoming the queen, primarily because she had long given up and was accustomed to a carefree lifestyle. She felt also partially thankful to her brothers since their presence allowed her to live a very controversial life for a woman, a princess even. If it weren’t for them, she would have been forced to marry years ago to produce the next generation. Since the Rajmund succession was very much concrete, she was allowed to live however she wanted. Therefore, to her, if it was possible, she wanted to save at least one prince so that she could live on as she wanted. At the moment, she was the sole heiress and was destined to inherit the throne of Estana from her father who was in his twilight years.

“He does have a point,” she replied. “I’d like to lead a small expedition force into the pit.”

Everyone was shocked to hear her.

“Princess, you cannot go there! You are the only heir! You need to stay put. You are putting yourself in enough danger as is.”

Under normal circumstances, she inclined to agree and may have accepted her fate.

“This is the Age of Darkness, isn’t it? The world may end soon. I care not and I am going to do what I feel is right,” she retorted.

Unknown to them but her, her father, the king, said he’d send a messenger to Ceres to inform Kamil about the dragon and hopefully enlist his assistance in vanquishing the dragon. However, she did not trust the existence of the betrayer of the wheel in the first place. She believed that her father was somehow attempting to get her married to him in a desperate attempt.

“Have any of you heard of this Duke of Ceres?” she asked the crowd in the chamber.

“The Duke?” one of the mages replied. “He was a very strong mage.”

“Was? You saw him?”

“Well, I was in Lady Izabella’s mage unit during the last war with Egra. I am not a wind mage, so I watched the fight occur from the ground, but our unit went down in a blink of an eye. It was like him versus seven.”

“Seven versus one and they still lost?!”

“Aye, princess.”

She dashed toward him and grabbed him by the collar. “Tell me everything about him, NOW!”

“Ma’am! Let me down please! I am not your enemy!”

“R…, right!”

She put him down, looking embarrassed. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, the man said, “Princess, thank you.” Then he went on to explain his experience.

“The way he cast magic was instantaneous. Those in the combat were all above seven and were able to cast chantless magic as well, but his was different. It was just instantaneous and he was firing off magic left and right.”

She placed her fingers on her chin with her eyes downcast. The way Kamil cast magic reminded her of the legendary hero, Kozma, who was known to cast magic instantaneously. This was most likely why her father claimed that he might be a betrayer of the wheel.

“What does he look like, do you know?”

“I am sorry, Princess. It was too far. He looked like a child, though.”

“A child?”

“Early teens perhaps. I am sorry but I don’t really know.”

 

She sent out scouts to keep track of the dragon’s movements, waiting for it to fly away from the pit. It spent a considerable amount of time hovering over the pit for reasons unknown. When it eventually flew away, she made a mad dash toward the pit with her mage group. All of them were carrying ropes and equipment necessary to climb down.

The pit where the dragon emerged from was a literal hole in the ground. Its diameter was about the size of a soccer field. Standing on the edge of the pit, she realized that it was pointless instantly because she could not see the bottom; it was pitch black. There could be survivors down there, yes. The royal palace had food storages, and whoever might be down there might be able to survive for a period. But getting them out? She saw no way.

“This is pointless,” she lamented. Others were looking down as well and were in agreement.

“We should at least try to measure the depth,” one of them suggested.

Nodding, she replied, “Make it quick. And the rest of you keep your eyes on the sky. We flee as soon as the dragon is spotted.”

There were twelve of them, the princess included, and they carried rope that was about 10 meters. They extended their rope as they lowered it. Even when they used up their last rope, it was still not reaching the bottom. The princess and the others looked at each other with a grim look on their faces. It was safe to assume that those down there were as good as dead if not already.

“We could enlist help from wind mages…,” one of them suggested reluctantly, fully knowing that it was probably pointless.

“No, they are dead, period,” she declared. The first thing the dragon did when it emerged from the ground was spewing its ash breath into the pit, potentially killing everyone inside. While it was still within the realm of a possibility that some may have survived, it felt like a hopeless endeavor at this point.

“Princess…”

“Let’s get back. No time to dwell on the dead.”

In her mind, it was time to accept the reality that her brothers were dead and that she and her father were the only survivors within the royal family. It was sad news but not the worst news objectively because at least she survived. The bloodline was not over. Once they made their way back to the underground chamber, she declared that Deltalago was officially lost.

“We are abandoning the capital. Inform everyone to withdraw to Kaoze.”

It was a small settlement of just five thousand people. It had acted as an intermediate stop while crossing the desert. The settlement would likely be abandoned soon as well once the resistant force from Deltalago was gone. Another settlement, Ronia, had also been ordered to prepare for the worst. The new capital was going to be Vestendil, a large city of 60,000 people. It was adjacent to a lake which was immensely helpful.

“Princess! Princess!” A man rushed in with his breath at his neck.

“What’s going on?”

He pointed repeatedly toward the outside while trying to catch his breath. “M, monsters! Monsters are coming out of the pit. There are so many that I can’t count!”

“What kind of monsters?!”

“I, I don’t know, ma’am! I couldn’t recognize them!”

“Everyone, grab supplies! We flee at once!”

As Heiga and others were rushing to leave their underground tunnel, they saw a dark wave crawling and flying out of the pit from afar. There were countless of them.

“Thousands? Tens of thousands?” she uttered as she beckoned others to come out of underground and make a run for it. There were cold sweats on her back because, if they stayed and attempted to save potential survivors from the pit, they would have met their end by the wave. It was undeniably clear that there would be no survivors. Whatever monsters they were, they were starting to cover the sky and the ground like armies of bats and ants.

“My word…,” one of the mages uttered with his hand on his forehead. “This is the end…”

When it was just a dragon, they felt they had a chance. After all, no matter how powerful, it was just a single creature. Now with countless monsters coming at them, they felt utterly hopeless. Granted, Estana had armies. However, unlike monsters that were coming out of nowhere, human losses could not be replenished right away. Their numbers would dwindle gradually, and they would eventually be defeated. Fighting the dragon quickly became an afterthought. It was becoming a matter of survival.

“Run! We are going to Kaoze!” she barked out her order while watching over others from behind whose shoulders were sagged as if defeated. If it wasn’t the distance they had in their advantage, they really wouldn’t have made out alive.

 

“Father,” Heiga sat down with her legs crossed. Her father, Szalai Rajmund, was also seated on a red cushion on a slightly elevated platform.

“I am very much glad that you’ve returned alive and well, Heiga. You did good, securing the survivors.”

In spite of his compliment, her face was dark rightfully so.

“I bring bad news, father.” She went on to break news that her brothers were dead and added that waves of monsters were coming out of the pit.

“I shall be honest. I never had high hopes for their survival.” There was no change in his expression. He really did not expect their survival. “What’s more concerning is the monsters.”

“I assume they will be storming the cities.”

For Estana, settlements were not walled because there had been no need. The only monsters were the giant spiders, and walls were powerless to stop them, thus they never bothered. In hindsight, defensive walls would have been extremely useful.

“None of our cities are walled,” he pointed out. “We won’t be able to hold them off.”

“Father, I am assuming that eliminating the dragon will stop the monsters.”

He nodded. “You’d be right.”

“Father, you need to call the betrayer of the wheel.”

“I’ve already sent a word, but it looks like he is quite busy already.”

She raised her voice slightly. “What is more important than saving lives?”

“He IS trying to do exactly that. You must remember that he is a single man.”

“But, father, the casualties will soon be off the chart!”

“You mustn’t forget that the whole world is experiencing this, not just us.”

She bit her lips; he wasn’t wrong.

He added, “It is abundantly clear to me what our job is. It is to earn time. We will lose a lot of people but we must delay the Age of Darkness no matter what the cost until the betrayer of the wheel is ready to fight the dragons.” A bitter smile emerged on his face. “We’ve failed our task of eliminating the dragon from its revival and we are going to pay for the failure with our lives.”

Kozma left them plenty of notes to ensure their survival. In their defense, the Rajmund family did their job. They kept his warnings to their heart for two thousand years. Unfortunately, keeping underlings in check was what they failed at. No matter what the excuse, the bottom line was that they failed to prevent the return of the dragon. Had they been successful, all they had to do was strike the heart of a regenerating dragon. Then only one dragon would be flying about in the present time, which would have been much more manageable.

“What is your order now, father?”

“We are moving to Makarlika.”

It was a city directly south of Ceres. The distance between them was about four days by foot and within a day by airship. Adjacent to a forest and sharing the same mountain as Ceres, it had roughly the same access to the natural resources which Ceres did although it was sitting on a less potent quartz vein. While it did not have an adjacent lake like Vestendil, it was built on edge of a small cliff, providing a natural wall on its southern border. A mountain protected its north and east also, leaving just west to defend. In a strategic sense, the city was made to defend against overwhelming odds.

“Father, I thought -”

He interjected, “I am aware, Hegia. Our original plan was that we relocate to Vestendil which is an objectively better place to be tactically. But Makarlika is much closer to Ceres.”

He was indirectly stating that he’d rather be closer to Kamil, and it irked her a bit.

“Father, if I may, I feel that you are putting too much trust in the child.”

“The child? He is fifteen, married, and is expecting a child soon. That is no child, Heiga.” He, then, folded his arms. “I assume your information is a bit outdated. He had a growth sprout recently and is a fine man. It’s too bad that the deal failed to materialize…”

The deal was when the king attempted to bring Heiga and Kamil together, but their age difference of five was a bit too much. Flora was already pushing the limit by being four years senior. The king didn’t particularly care whether he had a wife already or not because he himself had three wives although it didn’t please him that his daughter could end up becoming a second wife. The deal wasn’t completely dead in his mind although he wasn’t foolish enough that it was unlikely. Her reaction showed that she might hold a disdain toward Kamil, and he wasn’t likely keen to accept a second wife who was five years older.

“Heiga, do you have a man in your mind? I will let you choose your spouse,” he said and added, “You must continue the bloodline.”

Truthfully, she never had a guy friend. She never developed feelings for one, either. She had been a warrior through and through in her entire life. Additionally, her face wasn’t attractive enough for potential suitors to try hard enough, and she was a forgotten member of the royalty. For noblemen, marrying her wasn’t likely going to benefit him and his family at all. Thus, while there were some marriage offers, she rejected them all. And, with little benefits of marrying her, none of them made counter offers.

“I do not know … anyone,” she replied earnestly. Then she added, “Father…, you could still sire a child or two.”

He looked initially shocked with his eyes open wide, but his face soon showed a look of understanding.

“True, is that your answer?”

Biting lips subtly, she replied, “Father, please be straight. You wish me to become the second wife of the Duke, yes?”

“If possible, yes.”

“May I ask why?” she fired a defiant look in her silent protest. “He is five years younger than me and is already married.”

In addition to her lack of desire to be married, she found it rather insulting that her father was trying to get her married to a very young adult. It simply did not make sense in her mind. He nodded slowly as if he understood where she was coming from.

“As a father, what I’ve always wanted from you is finding a good husband and raising children. I just want you to be happy and, in my mind, that is a woman’s happiness. I do know that you’ve chosen the path of a warrior, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t leave a legacy. I’ve let you be until now, but you do know that the current situation calls for the need for you to marry.”

“Father…” Tears were gathering her eyes as she resisted sobbing.

“I’ve seen plenty of men who treated their women badly. Duke Fenchel is not one of them. I swear to my heart. His wife, Flora Flissing, was an abandoned child. No one would have bet an eye even if she ended up dead on the streets one day. Yet, according to Kerekes’ reports, she is the happiest woman in the world. The duke treats his woman well, and I want you to be treated well. All I ask you is to see him at least once. That is all I ask.”

It was true that she had never met him yet., and her father’s request wasn’t unreasonable. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had anyone in her mind. But it felt really awkward. The whole idea felt really awkward to her since romance was never a part of her life. She was really uncomfortable with the whole idea but also knew that she could not reject it, for it was of utmost importance that the next generation is secured. Therefore, in spite of her strong reluctance, she accepted her father’s idea. Besides, just seeing him once wouldn’t hurt anyway although she did feel the timing was a bit awkward with the current situation.

“Then I shall meet him.”

He beamed a smile. “Good, I shall arrange it posthaste.”