Freeing the emperors

The Hero Party has been saved and brought to another cliff. Drok carefully channels energy into their body so that their cells would be put in a state of overdosed and their wounds are healed quickly.

Arthur crouches behind a broken ridge, breathing hard, his aze fixed on the position of Agragon on the dragon’s head. The others wait beside him - Asa, crouched and alert, her eyes calculating; and Spidaract, still healing as his chitinous body is slower than the others.

“We have to kill the cephel emperor,” Arthur says from his experience reading manga, voice low but fierce. “He should be the one controlling Raikage. If he dies, it ends.”

Asa doesn’t buy that idea. Her mind are still fixed on the distant flash of energy that the creature has just bursted out. “No. That’s not how it works.”

Arthur blinks. “What?”

“Killing the emperor might stop his control,” she says, slowly, “but it won’t stop the crystal’s effect. I have heard the voice inside that crystal, the message might not disappear even if we kill the one comanding it.”

Vellithar nods beside her. “She’s right. I’ve seen it before. In the northern mines, they used lesser crystals to bind lizards. When the handler died, the creatures didn’t stop, they continue their task until the crystal is removed. The crystal’s last orders will echo endlessly without anyone to change it.”

“Only the original binder can stabilize it,” she adds, her voice suddenly trembling.

Arthur frowns. “Then… are you suggesting we force him to fix it?”

Vellithar turns toward him now. There’s something raw in her expression. “Or we kill him and break the crystal at the same time.”

Arthur pauses. “But we have no one to sneak up on him or strong enough to break a crystal that large.”

“We do,” Spidaract says, patting Arthur on his shoulder. “Don’t undermine my strength and I’ve seen your sneaking ability.”

“So…what’s the plan now?” Arthur egerly asks.

The wind howls above. From the peak, another roar thunders down, a scream of rage and suffering.

“First, we should be fast,” Vellithar, understanding Raikage’s pain, says.

…

Agragon stands alone now, high on the dragon’s head, one hand pressed gently to the crystal.

Raikage snarls beneath him, still staggering from the blast that exploded inside his own mouth.

“I didn’t want this,” Agragon whispers, more to himself than anyone. “I begged the elders to let me try peace again. But I was born with this voice. The only one who could ever hear them. So they made me the leash.”

He touches the side of the crystal. A gentle pulse of mana responds, almost like a heartbeat.

“I hear you, Raikage,” he says. “I always have.”

But his eyes close, weary. “But this is the only way.”

A gust of wind erupts as Drok soars toward him with his wings already torned and his body scorched, but refusing to fall. Vellithar clings to his neck, bow drawn once more.

She fires, arrow after arrow, each being dodged bacause Agragon knows her intention and their plan, some arrows barely scratching the surface.

“Stop, no way this thing would work,” his voice cracks as he yells at her.

Agragon raises one tentacle.

Raikage snarls again, charging mana in his mouth.

“Now!” Asa cries.

She slams both palms against the earth, liquefying the stone beneath Raikage’s front claws. The emperor staggers as Vellithar doesn’t know about this part of the plan. Raikage’s massive weight makes him tilts and the bolt of energy misfires, bursting into his chest.

The energy explodes inside his mouth, a shockwave spreads across the mountain.

Agragon is thrown off balance. The crystal pulses wildly as the energy that is channeling it - Raikage’s energy - is exploding under it.

Then, from the shadows, Spidaract strikes.

He scales the dragon’s tail, limbs clinging to scorched hide. His web, hardened through some refinement, wraps around the mana crystal.

One yank.

The crystal cracks.

Raikage shrieks - a raw, unbearable cry that shakes the peak.

Agragon scrambles, reaching out to stabilize the connection with his remaining strength. His hands glow, attempting to reseal the order.

That’s when Arthur strikes.

His body appears from thin air, he has camouflaged perfectly against Raikage’s scales. With his sword angled low, plunging through Agragon’s back.

The Cephel leader gasps.

“You filthy…thanks, kid.”

Raikage stumbles. The crystal shatters.

The light dies.

The storm ends.

Silence falls over the battlefield.

Raikage is free, blinking slowly, lifting his head and looking toward the charred sky.

The mountain groans beneath his weight. One by one, the broken rocks begin to settle. The fire dims, the wind softens.

Agragon collapses beside the shattered crystal. His breathing is shallow. His limbs are twitched. He coughs blood from his lungs, but leave no complain.

Arthur steps back, stunned.

“Why did you…thank me?” He whispers.

Agragon lays there, already dead.

Vellithar lands beside them, Drok folding his massive wings. She stares down at the man who once ruled her world.

She notices Agragon’s final faint smile.

And his eyes are closed.