The Guardragon’s Grief

“Come on, Yuki,” Eri says with exasperation. “You have to get up. Everyone is gathering around the dragon.”

“Can’t a woman lie here for a few minutes?” I groan. “I just want to rest. The past few hours have felt like an eternity!”

“Trust me, I want to rest too,” Eri agrees, “But we still have one more breach to go to, and I’m curious as to why we didn’t just kill the dragon.”

“Apparently, dragons don’t just show up everyday,” I explain. Eri pulls me up and I brush myself off. “Ryoka and Reiko tried to reason with it, but apparently it only understands strength.”

“So you had to beat it down to get any answers,” Eri deduces. “Huh.”

“Yeah, exactly.” I sigh. “Honestly, it was too much of a hassle for me. I would rather just be done with all of this.”

“You and me both, girl,” Eri responds. We start climbing down the stack of containers. “But I have a feeling you want peace and quiet more than any of us combined.”

I laugh sheepishly. “I think you’re right.”

We reach the bottom and start to walk over to the dragon, which was starting to rouse from its dazed state. The water prison I conjured still spun around the dragon, and it did so to the point that it was digging into the stone on the ground. Gabi and Ryoka gather to face the dragon head on, while Reiko runs up to us.

“That was pretty fun!” Reiko exclaims.

I deadpan. “Weren’t you just saying earlier today that you could have died?”

Reiko giggles. “I was able to defend myself a bit more this time, so it wasn’t terrible! Of course, I didn’t do anything compared to Ryoka, but it’s nice to be able to do something, you know?”

“I suppose I would know,” I sigh. “I’m the one that subdued the dragon, after all.”

“Your magic is pretty strong, you know?” Reiko says. “I don’t think any of us could compete with you if you went all out.”

“She’s right, Yuki,” Eri says. “When I was stitching the rift back together, I could sense you even drawing in some dimensional energy. That’s pretty crazy.”

“I what?” I laugh nervously. “There’s no way I did that. All I did was pull water from around me.”

“Hmm? And who gave you that idea?” Reiko grins knowingly.

I rub the back of my head and try not to meet Reiko’s gaze. “W-well, you know. I just thought that your affinity to water really suited you, and so I thought about you—“

“Aww, Yukin was thinking about me!” Reiko giggles as she interrupts me. “Well, you know what I say!”

“What do you say?” I ask, dreading her response.

“When it’s me, there’s a way!”

I feel sweat break on my forehead. “Wouldn’t it be ‘when there’s water, there’s a way’?”

“Same difference,” Reiko hums.

I hear Eri cough into her hand beside me. “She’s not wrong,” she says. I droop in defeat.

“I can’t beat you girls when it comes to teasing me, can I?”

“Nope!” Reiko chirps.

“Are you done messing around?” Ryoka asks. We quickly quiet, and he rubs the back of his head. “Sorry. That was rude. We got the dragon to wake up, and Gabi’s currently trying to nurse it back to consciousness.”

“She’s actually healing it?” I ask. “I mean, I guess it needs to be able to talk to us freely, but I…”

“What is it, Yuki?” Gabi shouts. “Is something the matter?”

I jump in place. “N-nothing! I was just wondering when you would be done there!”

“Well, she’s just about healed around her head, so I’ll be giving her a jolt!”

“Okay, sounds good—wait, her?”

We all flinch as the dragon inhales sharply and opens its eyes. Seeing all five of us standing there, it eyes us for a moment before it begins to thrash. It barely moves as my spell binds its body together, but it attempts it just as much and it opens its mouth. Just as it seems like its about to scream, Gabi shouts and ignites her sword before slashing it across the ground before her. The flames blast outwards, singeing the dragon’s scales, and it hisses before calming.

“Do you understand your position, dragon?” Gabi says. “You are bound, and you are outmatched.” She holds her sword in between the dragon’s eyes, and it stares at the blade. With a fiery gaze, Gabi screams, “Yield!”

The dragon suddenly begins to glow, and we watch in fascination as it’s figure burns bright before the light shrinks smaller and smaller. Finally, the light fades, and I blink as I see a figure cloaked in the same colour and texture of scales that the dragon had. At her feet, and on around her outstretched hands, the same infinity symbol that had patterned itself from my spell seems to bind the decidedly female figure.

“You have bested me,” the woman says. She brings her head up and her eyes glow a brilliant shade of green. “And I am too weak to fulfill my duty as a dragon.” Her voice cracked and she dropped to her knees. “Slay me. It is your right.”

“Woah, woah, woah!” I yell, running forward with my hands shaking. “No slaying! Not yet!”

“I agree!” Eri exclaims. “If she was performing her duty, she should at least be allowed to explain!”

“I don’t think it’s good to slay a dragon, either,” Ryoka says. “She will remain useful in maintaining the peace throughout the Realms—“

“H-hey!” Gabi shouts, and her flaming blade extinguishes itself. “I wasn’t planning on slaying her, relax!”

“O-oh,” I say, coming to a stop beside her. Gabi sighs and sheathes her blade. “Honestly. I don’t know why this dragon is so dramatic.”

“I tried my best!” The dragon cried, and I was taken aback at the sheer intensity of her sorrow. “I couldn’t even beat you! I deserve to die! I am shameful to every guardragon that lives between the realms!”

“I think that’s being a little harsh on yourself…” I sweat as I rub the back of my head. “I mean, you were up against the ruler of the demon realm, a powerful RED lieutenant, and three high schoolers who don’t know what they’re doing.” I sigh as I say, “And I’m one-hundred percent positive that I would be more terrified of the last enemy.”

Ryoka and Gabi nod simultaneously, causing an indignant “Hey!” to blurt from Eri and Reiko, though I can tell Reiko is enjoying being picked at. I shake my head and turn to the dragon in front of me. “What’s your name, anyway? I can’t keep calling you ‘the dragon’ in my head.”

“I’m L-Lorani,” she says, holding back sobs. “This was my first time defending a breach and I failed! Waaaaah!”

“Oh no!” Reiko says, and the next moment, she’s kneeling beside the crying dragon. “There, there. You did great. I could hardly break through your scales, and I only managed to scrape them when I did! I think you were very tough.”

“Y-you think so?” Lorani sniffles. “I’m glad! Waaaaaah!” She pulls Reiko into a hug, and I wince as Reiko goes limp with a loopy smile and I swear I hear something crack. Even though I feel her pain, that’s exactly why I can’t help but think: I guess this is what people call karma.

“Wait,” Eri says, stepping forward. “What do you mean you were defending the breach?”

“W-well,” Lorani begins. She releases Reiko from her grasp and I watch with sympathy as Reiko flops to the ground and I swear I almost see her ghost leaving her body. “We knew there was something going on with the Choral Gate. Being between realms, it’s a little hard to really discern what’s going on, but we could tell that it was fracturing, and that first gate you opened really worried us. We thought you were the ones behind it, because you carried vast amounts of power around you.

“In the end, I wanted to try and prove myself so I came through to best whoever it was that was trying to break open the breach.” She looks back at the sealed rift and sniffles. “But you were only trying to fix it! I suck! I suck!”

“Well, that does explain why she was adamant to defeat us.” Ryoka thinks aloud, his chin resting in his hand. “She didn’t want to leave anything to chance with the fractured Gate.” He frowned. “That still raises the question as to why the other gate is being flooded with a veritable army of dimensional monsters.”

“They’re only there to stall for time,” Lorani states. “Just like you, we sensed a great presence of power gathering around that gate. They sent a chimera to each of the other gates, assuming that it would be enough.” She wipes her tears away and shakes her head. “You were more than enough. And you’re doing a better job of protecting your realm than I am.”

“So what’s going to happen at the other gate?” I ask. “Because if what you’re saying is true, then Gabi’s army is suffering in vain.” I put up two fingers and fold them both as I count, saying, “We’ve already sealed these two. What’s wrong with the third?”

“It isn’t just the beings themselves we can feel when a gate is opened,” Lorani says. “We can feel the intent and purpose of each use of the gates, and something had used that breach to break into the demon realm.”

“That doesn’t sound good at all. Tell me more—“ Gabi stumbles her words as she realizes what Lorani said, and asks, “—Wait, break into the demon realm?!”

“Yes,” Lorani says. “Something, many somethings, broke through the gate, like the first time it had happened.” Lorani stares at us with her still-puffy eyes and sighs. “The connected Gate frequency was still too weak for us to catch it the first time, but we could instantly tell this time that nothing good would come from sitting and watching. We had to intervene.”

“So you could tell we were trying to seal the breaches,” Ryoka says, “And you still tried to fend us off?”

“We couldn’t tell if you were sealing it to keep something in, or to keep everything else out.” Lorani sniffles once more and shakes her head. “There were too many variables and we wanted to make sure. We couldn’t take the risk.”

“Understandable,” Eri says. “That’s a good choice. But we need to head back to the other rift and seal it now—“

“Actually,” Lorani says sheepishly, “We have one of our own guardragons racing there now to seal it from the dragon’s end. You’ve done amazingly, but it will still take some time.” She turns to Eri and bows. “You’re much faster than we are at sealing the breaches. You must have the mage sight. You truly are gifted, and you have as much right to slay me as any other present. You may do so if you wish—“

“Wait, what?!” Eri cries. “I can’t do that! Stop it!”

“Yeah, stop…” Reiko says lazily from the ground, which tells me she’s completely fine. “Help her…”

“What are we supposed to do then?” Gabi asks. “We still need to find the Rogues (that’s what we’re calling those who are trying to destroy the peace of the realms) and bring normalcy back to the human world.”

“They are also fighting our guardians on the other side,” Lorani says. “A four-dimensional rift can split in three-dimensional ways, after all. But they are succeeding in besting us, and have no intention of sealing the rifts. Once it’s fully healed on this end, we will need to focus on the other side.

Gabi growls, and I step away from her as she tightens her grip on her sword and clenched her other hand into a fist. I then watch Reiko nurse her ribs and back before getting up and stumbling to Lorani. “Can we help you?” Reiko asks. “We can travel to the other side, and seal those rifts too.”

“That will be very difficult indeed,” Lorani says. Her colour is returning, and I can see her taking courage again as she stands a little straighter. “We most certainly could use the help in sealing the rifts and defending against the instigators, but…”

“But what?” Eri questions.

“The Choral Gate has started destabilizing.”

A gasp from both Ryoka and Gabi cause me to start to worry. “That sounds bad. Is that bad?” I turn to Eri, who shrugs. Gabi sighs.

“Yes, it’s bad,” Gabi says. “As in ‘your city might just be sucked into the void and stop existing’ bad.”

My stomach falls and I feel a shiver roll through me. “U-uh, that’s really bad.”

Eri hums and looks at Lorani. “So what you’re saying is, you want us to head over to the Choral Gate.”

“No, I need you to head over there,” Lorani pleads. “You defeated me, which means you are a danger to the realms, but it also means you are capable of defending the realms as well. Please! I’d rather die than return a failure!”

“Hey, no more talk of death, alright?” Reiko smiles painfully. “We’ll help you, since it’s what we were going to do anyways.”

“R-really?”

“Yes,” Ryoka assures. “It’s not everyday a dragon asks someone for help. Besides, you seem very sincere in wanting to protect the realms, and that is something I will never look over. We would love to help you.” He walks over to her and pulls her up. “But in return, you must help us as well.”

“O-of course!” Lorani says. “I will do what I must!”

“Okay, that’s all well and good,” Gabi begins, and she sheathes her blade, “But we need a quick way to head over to the Choral Nexus. Preferably something that can transport all of us.”

“Couldn’t you use magic?” I ask.

Gabi slowly nods.“Yes… we could, but only if you like the idea of arriving with a few pieces left behind.”

I sweat nervously. “Huh.”

“A group of five, plus a dragon, now, is incredibly difficult to transport with one spell. You need immense amounts of mana, or a way not to strain your resonite so that it won’t interfere with the spell.” Gabi shakes her head. “I could do it, but I can’t guarantee all of our safety.”

“S-so, any other ways, then?”

I watch Reiko as she turns to Lorani with a grin and pokes her. “Hey, dragon. Can we ride you?”

Lorani squeaks and shies away from Reiko. “W-what?”

“You know,” Reiko says, “Turn back into a dragon and let us ride on your back!”

“Ack!” Lorani turns a bright red. “I-I mean, I could, b-but that’s, that’s—!”

“What is it?” Ryoka asks curiously. “Is something wrong?”

“No!” She grips her face and shakes her head. “I’ll do it! Just release me already!”

Everyone turns to me and I laugh painfully. “What’s with the looks, everyone?”

“We need you to dispel the bind,” Gabi explains.

Eri smiles at me. “It shouldn’t be too hard, right? You’re the one who cast it, after all.”

“I… uh, I don’t know how…”