Victor Takes All: Part 1

With red, tear-streaked eyes, Victor placed the crown on his head.

He felt the surge of power that enveloped him. He walked up to the locked door and placed his palm on the indentation.

The surge of mana and his newfound authority coursed through him. The door's deep grooves flared with light as the black rock unfolded, revealing a dark portal.

Victor stepped through and felt the space around him warp and ripple.

He found himself in complete darkness, before the room was filled with light.

The hoard of Drakan’thar wasn’t your picturesque dragon’s hoard. It didn’t just sit in a cavernous maw, gold and treasure piled into a mountain.

He looked out at the vault of treasures.

It was half storage room and display room. One row was lined with weapons, and the other held rows of shelves and containers.

The space existed in a space outside of their realm. There was no brute forcing your way into the dragon vault.

Victor looked on with no emotion in his face. He took a deep breath and began walking down the middle of the room, towards the back. He walked past weapons and relics that had changed and could still change the course of history.

He then turned away from the displaycases and to a row of non-descript drawers. He opened them and he looked down to see rows upon rows of golden bracelets.

He felt the pang of his tome.

Great Feat Accomplished: Resurrecting Drakan’thar

Reward acquired

Legendary Feat Accomplished: Slaying the Dragon Tyrant

Reward acquired

Great Feat Accomplished: Betraying the protagonist

Reward acquired

Legendary Feat Accomplished: Opening the Dragon Hoard

Reward acquired

I could have guessed this is what you sought, however I didn’t expect the methods you chose to acquire it. While I am appalled at your actions, I respect your audacity and ingenuity. So, enjoy the spoils of your toils. Daigo has some catching up to do~

Victor closed the tome and threw it away from him.

The tome could be retrieved with a wave of his hand. With a bit of mana he could summon the tome and a pen with hardly any cost. Enderan didn’t need to send Yoki to help bring it to him. It was bound to him. But how could he have known with everything Victor had hidden from the boy. He looked down at the bracelets and took one up, rubbing it with his thumb. It was engraved with dragon scales.

He poured mana into the bracelet and the red gem embedded into the bracelet glowed red.

- - - -

“Hoowwaaah!” I stretched my one arm in the air.

I sat up and looked around at my surroundings and was confused.

Victor was sitting on an elegant chair, looking down at his tome. And laying right behind him were two dragons.

“AH!” I scurried back looking at the dragons.

“Morning Enderan,” Victor greeted. “Or should I say good afternoon, sleepyhead.”

“Victor. You. What?” I was lost for words. “The dragons!”

“Don’t worry, they’re our friends.”

I noticed that Victor was wearing a golden crown with gems in it. They glowed bright red.

I looked around and realized I was on the landing area atop Mount Pale Crown. Then my mind caught up with me. The last thing I remembered was exploring the palace shortly after arriving.

I looked around and tried to feel for my bond with Yoki. “Where’s Yoki?”

“Don’t worry, he’s fine.” He closed his tome and sat it down. “Enderan, there’s something you need to know.”

“You think?!” I exclaimed. “Did I get knocked unconscious or something?”

“No, Enderan.” Victor’s eyes shone with tears, his breath shuddering. “You died.”

The words didn’t connect. Died? I touched my chest, felt the solid thump of my own heart. It was a joke. A cruel, terrible joke. But the grief in his face was real. “What?” I whispered. “That’s… that’s not possible.”

“You’re not calling me a liar?” he asked, his voice raw.

“My mind is screaming that you are!” I gestured wildly at the crown, the dragons. “But none of this makes sense either. This is too much to have happened overnight. A lie like ‘amnesia’ would be easier. Simpler. Why would you say… that?”

Victor grimaced.

“Telling me that I died would have been a pretty hard lie to keep up.”

“So, do you want to know why you came back to life?”

“If you need to keep your secrets go ahead. I’m sure it’s because of you that I’m still alive.”

Victor shook his head. “I can’t take credit for that. You should thank your mother.”

“Really?”

“Your mother wasn’t human, Enderan,” Victor said softly. “She was a phoenix.”

“A phoenix?” The word felt strange, mythical. I thought of the fire that sometimes sparked to life in my chest.

“A being of flame and rebirth. When they die, they return from their own ashes.” He watched me closely. “You’re half human, so it’s not true immortality. Your mother… she gave up her own life, her own cycle of rebirth, to give you your one.”

“So, that’s the reason they all kept the truth hidden from me.” My lip trembled and I smiled at him. “Thank you, Victor.”

He smiled back but it was a brittle thing that shattered in an instant. He stared straight into my eyes. “Enderan. I’m the one who killed you.”

For a moment, the world froze for me. The wind howled in my ears. Then I chuckled. “I’m sure you had a good reason to, right? There has to-

“No, there isn’t. I tricked you.” His voice was flat. “My main purpose in coming here was to obtain the crown of Drakan’thar. With it on I have absolute authority over dragons, “which means I can command every dragon in the world with merely a thought.” He raised his hand and the dragon laying by Victor raised its head and pressed it into Victor’s awaiting hand.

“It also gives me access to the dragon’s hoard and every weapon and relic inside it.” Victor let the dragon go back to rest and looked to Enderan. “Drakan’thar was never born with his authority over his own race. He made a deal with a demon for this crown, and with it he was able to rule the world for a time.”

“If the crown is so powerful to begin with, I’m sure they would have taken it already.”

“When Drakan’thar died, the crown’s power left it because it was bonded to his soul. So in order to restore the crown back to its original power, we had to bring back Drakan’thar. To complete such a ritual would have required an abundance of mana that even an archmage couldn’t provide. Do you recall how the men of the Ashbornn Lancers died?”

“Their hearts burned them alive.”

“Elori’sha wanted them to burn alive for their cruel acts. So their hearts began to siphon an endless stream of mana from the nightmare realm to power the burning curse. And do you recall what the first thing I taught you was?”

“The importance of names?” That day often replayed in my mind. “That there were people who will love and continue to love me?!” I treasured that day, so much. And I felt anger that it may have been used to trick me. “But if you meant the first lesson you gave me, then it was mana manipulation so I could tame Yoki. So you tricked me into using my curse to power your ritual?!”

Victor nodded. “But your curse wasn’t enough, I made you eat one of the dragon queen’s eggs.”

I felt like I was going to be sick, “Wait, dragon egg. What happened yesterday?”

He gave an account of everything that happened. I was in awe, but also upset that I had forgotten. “While I’d like to say we defeated him, you annihilated him with your father’s spear. Enderan, your fight was spectacular.”

“So what happened then?”

“He died. But instead of his soul fleeing him, the ritual bound his soul to his crown rather than his body. It’s a method that necromancers use to prevent them from completely dying. So, the crown still contains the authority and power, but now anyone who wears it gets Drakan’thar’s abilities. The downside is…”

Victor gaze shifted to the left of me. “I can see the bastard.”

-

“And you can hear him too, you sniveling worm!” Drakan’thar exclaimed.

Enderan looked further behind where the Dragon Tyrant stood.

“Quiet down there, Hanabel.” Victor jeered.

The Dragon Tyrant smoldered.

“Hanabel?” Enderan asked.

“That’s what his wife called him, “in a lovey-dovey voice, might I add.” Victor said mockingly.

Drakan’thar was fuming.

However Enderan didn’t join in. “You already trapped him. Now, you’re just being cruel. There’s no reason to shame him any further.”

“At least someone has integrity.” The spirit said, reexamining Enderan in a new light.

“Well, luckily I can only see him while I have this damn thing on.” Victor sighed. “All of it was almost worth the cost.”

“And what was that?” Enderan glared at Victor.

“While you fought Drakan’thar, you drew upon your original curse and drastically accelerated the dragon transformation. You became extremely hostile towards me, and almost broke my arm.”

“Perhaps you deserved it.”

“I did. Your hostility wasn’t unwarranted. As the ritual went on, your heart began to burn. Before fighting, Drakan’thar had told you that he sensed two curses in you. Despite everything that was going on, you still caught on to my trick. You prevented me from running away. My plan was to just vanish and leave you to die.”

Enderan just sat there speechless, then clenched his fists. “You couldn’t at least put me out of my misery?”

“I only had the Inky Blade with me. However it has a powerful ability which allows it to store up to three souls of anything I kill with it. It’s the same reason I didn’t just stab Drakan’thar in the heart. It would have ruined the plan. “And I couldn’t kill you with it, fearing it would prevent even you from being reborn.”

Enderan looked down at his hands.

“But that’s just an excuse!” Victor yelled. “Even if I had the ability to give you a quicker death, I would never bring myself to do it!”

Enderan was shocked at his honesty but then yelled back. “How could you say that when you burned me alive!”

“I had to! I vowed to do whatever it takes to take back my world!”

“Take back your world? Do you not come from here?!”

“I meant that this world is mine! Because I made it!”

They sat in silence.

“I have one last guess.”

“What?”

“I have one last question,” I said, my voice quiet. “You promised you would be honest with me, no matter what. I need to know.”

Victor laughed. “Yes. And I swear I have always been answering truthfully. Go ahead. Ask.”

“Are you a god?”

They sat in silence. Drakan’thar didn’t say anything as he stared at Victor.

“No. I’m not a god.”

Enderan just sat in silence, as the Dragon Tyrant was roaring with laughter.

“I’m a writer,” Victor said. “And it was my words and imagination that created your world.”