EPISODE 1: Dragon Awakens — CHAPTER 3: Dragon Gate Unsealed — PART 1

Bastion wasn’t quite sure where he was.

It wasn’t heaven. Too foreboding. It wasn’t hell either. No brimstone, no fire. That left only one possibility.

Bastion knew about Soul Chambers. They were fundamental to how people performed magic, even if most never actually saw their own.

They said every Soul Chamber looked different and that the contents carried symbolic meaning.

Which made Bastion’s Soul Chamber more than a little concerning.

The walls and floor were rough-hewn brown stone, a type he couldn’t identify. If there was a ceiling, it was lost in darkness; the walls rose endlessly into shadow.

Torches burned at head height, evenly spaced along the walls to cast a steady, flickering light.

Ahead, two lines of standing sconces stretched forward, guiding the eye to the room’s main feature:

Bastion’s Soul Tree.

Like the Chamber itself, every Soul Tree was said to be unique.

His was carved directly into the far wall—a massive trunk with hundreds of branches snaking upward into the unseen heights of the chamber.

At its base stood a stele of polished white stone. Unlike the rest of the room’s rough rock, it was smooth, unmarred, and radiant.

Behind him, the chamber stretched on forever.

He was alone.

“You seem lost,” said a voice.

Bastion spun, searching. No one was there.

“Hello? Who are you? Show yourself!”

“Down here, big guy.”

Bastion looked down—and jumped in surprise.

At his feet sat a tiny orange dragon. It was chubby, with an oversized head, stubby little horns, and wings far too small to ever lift it.

But it was, unmistakably, a dragon.

Bastion squatted for a closer look.

“Who are you?”

“You can call me Fen.”

“Like a bog?”

“Precisely. Well, that’s how you pronounce and spell it, anyway. I’m obviously not a wetland.”

Bastion nodded slowly. “So, why are you here?”

The dragon hopped up and began to hover by fluttering its too-tiny wings. It poked him in the chest with one of its three-fingered claws.

“We are here because you are about to die. I’d like to prevent that, if possible.”

Bastion raised an eyebrow. “Not to sound cavalier about my own mortality, but I’m reasonably confident that I’m already dead.”

“I imagine you’d think so, given the beating you just took. By golly, you have been put through the wringer.”

“But you think you can save me?”

“‘Saving’ isn’t quite the right word. More like… re-purposing. I’m re-purposing you.”

“Can you get to the point?” Bastion frowned.

“As you wish. Follow me.”

Fen fluttered his pudgy little way over to the white stele at the base of the Soul Tree. When he reached it, he tapped the surface and looked expectantly at Bastion.

“You know what this is, yes?”

“My Dragon Gate?”

“Indeed. Tell me, Bastion, do you know why humans have Dragon Gates?”

Bastion frowned. “The Drakists teach that five thousand years ago, the High Dragon Exia bestowed them upon humanity to give us access to magic.”

“And do you believe them?”

“Well, I’m Shinto, but I guess?” Bastion scratched his head. “It’s not something I think about a lot. I mean, we have Dragonscript, and we’ve known Dragon Gates exist for centuries now.”

“What if I told you the Church of Draka has it backwards?”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Dragon Gates don’t grant humans access to magic. Quite the opposite—they cut you off from it.”

Bastion pursed his lips. “Still not following.”

“Five thousand years ago, Exia created the Dragon Shield, which protects humanity from all the nasty things that go bump in the night.”

“You mean demons.”

“Yes. Demons—and pretty much everything else with an ounce of pure magic in their blood. You know what happens if a magical creature tries to pass through the shield, right?”

Bastion didn’t need to answer. Even a child knew: if a magical creature tried to cross the Dragon Shield at the edge of humanity, it would be incinerated on contact. Humans could pass through, but beyond the magic dead zone surrounding the shield, they were fair game for all the horrors roaming the wilds. Even with the power of Soul Trees and the might of automatic weaponry, humanity hadn’t mapped even a fraction of the world beyond the barrier.

“Do you know why Exia created the shield?” asked Fen.

“To keep demons from murdering us all?”

“Well, yes. And no.”

“Please stop with the dramatic pauses. Just tell me what you want.”

“You are such a spoilsport,” Fen huffed. "Fine. I shall be concise, then. Exia created the shield because humans became incredibly frail after they received their Dragon Gates. It’s not just demons that want to slurp your blood. Heck, the Gorespawn that just kicked your teeth in? Not a demon at all. Just a plain-old magic monster.

“But Fen, I hear you ask, why give us the Dragon Gates if they make us so weak? Great question, my hypothetical protégé. The answer: to protect you from demons.”

Bastion frowned. “Didn’t you just say—”

“Don’t interrupt me after telling me to get to the point. It’s rude.”

Bastion narrowed his eyes at the dragon but said nothing.

“As I was saying, the Dragon Gates protect you from demons. Not from them killing you, oh no. Rather, they protect you from becoming demons.”

Bastion blinked. “What?”

"Any magical creature has the potential to become a demon, Bastion—from the lowly kitsune to the mighty Cloud Giants. The Uroko often translate demon as oni, but that’s a bit misleading. Oni are just another kind of yōkai: powerful, yes, but not demons in the proper sense. The more accurate translation would be akuma, I think. Very few creatures ever ascend to true demonhood—but those that do are, well, terrifying. Humans included.

"You see that tree behind me? Humans have always had that. You’re a magical race, just like everything else on this world.

"But unfortunately, humans have a certain… proclivity for becoming demons. Five thousand years ago, humanity was on the brink of transforming entirely. So Exia put the kibosh on that right and proper, that she did.

"She gave humans Dragon Gates.

"With that, you were cut off from magic. But Exia knew you’d still need access to it somehow, so she created Dragon Script. That’s what lets you humans scribble on your Gates to bypass some of the restrictions. In some cases, you even manage to access your Soul Tree—and let me tell you, Exia did not see that coming.

"But what’s important is this: while you can temporarily inject magical energy into your soul, you can never hold onto it permanently. And if that energy ever got out of control, your Dragon Gate would sever the flow, stopping the worst from happening.

"For five thousand years, humanity has grown and learned and found ways to take advantage of Exia’s gifts—sometimes doing things she never imagined you’d be capable of.

"But there’s one hard rule when it comes to her Gate: humans cannot become demons. End of story. No permutation of Dragon Script, no fancy mage-craft, no tinkering, experimenting, enchanting, or exploding can break that rule.

“It’s been five thousand years since a human became a demon. And as long as Dragon Gates exist, that won’t change. Are you following so far?”

Bastion swallowed and nodded. His intuition told him he wasn’t going to like what came next.

“The problem is, someone out there is trying to figure out how to destroy Dragon Gates. This maniac wants to create honest-to-goodness demons. And frankly, it’s only a matter of time before he succeeds.”

“Do you know who?” Bastion asked.

“I have a few suspicions. Nothing concrete yet.”

“Go figure,” Bastion sighed. “So where do I fit into this?”

“Well, Exia foresaw this happening. Humans are predictable in that you can never truly predict what they’ll do. So she created a contingency plan: you.”

“Me?”

“Well, not just you. Almost anyone could be part of the contingency, if they meet the conditions.”

“And that contingency is?”

“If you accept my terms, I can open your Dragon Gate for you.”