Chapter - 1

King Karl waited for his doom to come and it did in the form of his elder son, who finally returned from his exile of five years. Karl slept on a bed made of teakwood with rich carvings of roses and vines. His head perched on a soft silk cushion and a satin bed sheet covered his torso. The chambers were spacious and decorated with rich tapestries and different types of paintings of extraordinary artists.

Cornelius the dragon prince stood by the window of the king’s chambers and watched his future wife, Galina mourning the loss of her fiance in the gardens, with a lecherous smile on his face.

“The songs of my brother who gloriously perished by falling from his horse will be a pleasure to my ears,” the Dragon prince said with amusement. He turned to face his father and noticed the old king glaring at him. The dragon prince answered it with a crooked smile that bespoke his cunning nature.

“They call me dragon prince nowadays, as I bonded with the last dragon. Which means I can conquer the entire continent. Forget the continent. Even those silver-haired worms at the nadini isle of nihud sea will bend the knee to my might and glory,”

“You monster,” croaked the withering monarch.

“I am a monster. Which was why you never should have picked him over me,” he let out and ambled to his father, laughing, and stood beside him.

“He didn’t have cojones to kill me. He was simply a weak man who dwelled completely afraid of how he is going to get written in history for killing his brother. Now he’s dead and history would remember him as an incompetent royal ass who couldn’t even ride, let alone rule, a kingdom.” He poured some wine into a goblet and continued,

“You should have seen the look on his face. He was so terrified by my sudden arrival that he lost his balance and fell from his horse. I didn’t even need to plan to murder him. Made my job quite easy,”

“I should have done it. I should have killed you when I had the chance,” the old monarch croaked as he spat some blood on the floor, coughing.

“You reminded me of that every day which is why I ordered the healer to poison your body slowly. If you killed me I wouldn’t have brought you to this stage,”

“No, it can’t be. He worked for me for years. He wouldn’t. This can’t be possible,” the king uttered in disbelief.

“You got progressively worse as he used the slow toxin and it seems like you had forgotten that this man prevailed in your uncle’s rule. He betrayed your uncle for your father. He betrayed your son and you for me. He confided with me about his role in the assassination. He was the one who made the poison found on the tip of the arrow which pierced grand uncle Jamie’s shoulder,”

“You killed your mother in birth and now you are killing me. You Dea.. “

The king vomited a lot of blood. Even so, in anger, he tried to get up and strangle his son with his frail hands. King's hands didn’t move an inch and his breathing slowed and, ultimately, it stopped. His attempt to kill was in vain and his son loomed over him, unexpectedly weeping like a boy.

In the following days, the dragon prince took care of the disloyal nobles and gave absolute power to his allies. His bond with the ancient one had terrified both kind and wicked across the living world. He married the woman who chose his brother over him against her wish. Her father was happy to become an ally and gave his daughter’s hand more than willingly.

The new monarch's reign was fair and just, but his ambitions were about bringing fire and blood.

In the 2nd year of his reign, he launched an invasion of nihud that would bring him complications decades later. 

Patanip was the first ever known city built by the Andividrans, a race of ancient people blessed with long lives and strong bodies. They were a step above humanity and yet they were losing to a human being, who somehow bonded with the ancient one.

The dragons were supposed to be exterminated when the ancient riders faced the Yoseoni, a race of demons that came to the world 15000 years ago.

They had spread chaos on the planet and wiped out several races of humanity until the astratans, a league of extraordinary warriors blessed with divine weapons, pushed them out of the human world. Their leader was Ralvat, an andividran woman whose aquasceptre got lost, but her armour was for thousands of years under the andividran royal protection. They stopped greedy invaders from seizing the armour with their battle prowess, but they failed to suppress Cornelius’s invasion.

Artasiddha one of the soldiers watched his fellow warriors who served with him for centuries burn to death.

He lived in patanip for over 200 years but now they destroyed it. The great structures built by Aravanians had become rubble. The city was littered with the carnage of wounded and dead fighters of both races, the pale-skinned humans and dark-skinned and silver-haired Andividrans.

A hellish symphony of screams and burning bodies replaced melody and floral fragrance. The human soldiers in their red uniform spared no one, be it the elderly or children. Artasiddha fought through the carnage to find his family and escape with them. He evaded the raining arrows by hiding behind the fallen debris of a two-storey house. A soldier who was hiding too immediately tackled him and tried to kill him by stabbing him with his dagger, but artasiddha immediately hit him with a stone.

The soldier fell back and squealed in pain. Artasiddha climbed on top of him and hit him again and again until he moved no longer.

He took that soldier’s sword and shield and kept moving. Several soldiers fought against the invaders, only to be burned by the dragon flames. Artasiddha avoided crowded spots for that reason and selected alleyways to move toward his destination.

A soldier who was using the same strategy came face to face with artasiddha. Instead of battling him, artasiddha dropped his sword and with inhumane speed threw a dagger which found itself deep in the soldier’s neck.

Artasiddha wasted no time and hurried ahead and saw that at the edge of the alleyway, in a wide street men battled. He kept moving. If he had gone quicker, it would have been his doom. The flames of the dragon burned everything on the wide road. Men from both sides of the war screamed in pain as the fire burned them.

"I should use the sewers," He muttered to himself and ran in the opposite direction. 

Cornelius watched the city from the sky.

Patanip was indeed a beautiful city, as the historical records suggested. The architectural marvel impressed him. They built the vast majority of buildings with many intricate shapes and wide sizes and had intricate carvings unmatched by human kingdoms. It pained him to burn this down, but the world needed a new order and for that, this city needed to go.

“Your ancestors flew here a long time ago. Do you know that, my dearest?” He asked his dragon.

“I wish I was there in this city. Looking above and seeing 10000 dragons gliding to thwart the demon army. What a glorious spectacle, eh?” He said while rubbing his hand against its skin. He then directed the dragon toward the golden castle. When he reached it, he realised the paintings did no justice to this beauty.

It stood on top of a hill overlooking the city. It was an imposing structure of great towers linked with intricate bridges and connected by big, chunky walls made of pure gold, with windows richly carved with intricate designs.

“It’s in there, my son. The armour of a god. With that, I’ll be one step away from saving the world.”