Chapter Text
Dark hours have arrived in the Raon Kingdom.
The White Star seemed to be an even bigger issue than anticipated, one that the Kingdom´s hero and an ancient dragon failed to defeat together – no, even worse, were completely powerless against in a battle.
The faces of the people attending this “extremely secret” meeting were dark and serious and everyone had his own thoughts on how to handle the situation…not. They were clueless. That was probably the main problem here: No one had thought of such an outcome being an option. To speak the truth, they underestimated their enemy and overestimated their powers.
Just because one was strong didn’t mean that one was the ultimate force.
But the same couldn’t be said about the White Star. No matter how he spoke, how he walked and how weak he appeared, he definitely was the ultimate force. A one man army.
Alberu Crossman, the soon to be King of the Roan Kingdom, looked at his folded hands in front of him before he lifted his gaze and locked eyes with his “instructor”. The swordsmaster shook his head and the Crown Prince locked eyes with the ancient dragon.
There were currently six people sitting inside this room:
The Crown Prince Alberu Crossman.
The swordsmaster Choi Han who also happened to be the Crown Prince´s instructor.
The Tower Master of the Magic Tower Rosalyn.
The Magic Brigade Commander Tasha who also happened to be the Crown Prince´s aunt.
The ancient dragon Eruhaben.
And last but not least the Mercenaries King Bud Illis from the Eastern Continent.
Eruhaben let out a deep sigh, thinking about all imaginable possibilities on how to solve the White Star problem. He didn’t have any so he, just like Choi Han, shook his head.
“Excuse me, I don´t want to sound rude, but Eruhaben-nim, didn’t you work on a new spell which is supposed to be very powerful? Couldn’t that help?”
Alberu piqued at the ancient dragon with interest and hope in his eyes. It was a very thin straw he was currently holding on to, but it didn’t matter to him.
Eruhaben cleared his throat, looking away and avoiding making eye contact with anyone.
“I don´t know how it is supposed to help. It was just an idea I got while watching the Living die. It is a summoning spell which is not completed nor tested yet. I also have no clue on how it should help with our current problem.”
Bud Illis sat up straighter in his chair.
“But Sir, if it is supposed to summon someone or something, it would be of immense help. And if it is something like necromancy-“
“It is not something like necromancy. For that we have our necromancer. It is more like a soul-summoning spell; that is if I somehow manage to get it done.”
Bud Illis didn’t give up, the new piece of information he received from the ancient dragon just now was giving him more hope than he had over the past month.
“But if it succeeds…Eruhaben-nim, you could summon the souls of the past warriors…the strong people from the past! We could use our directory and search for the strongest-“
Eruhaben shook his head, shutting the man up.
“To do that, I´d have to perform the spell. I still don´t know how to exactly do it, nor how much mana it consumes. Let´s try to find another solution for now.”
This time, the Crown Prince shook his head.
“Eruhaben-nim, not to speak against you, but this is our only option right now. Are you certain it isn’t a possibility? Do you doubt your abilities to perform the spell? If so, you can get help from Rosalyn. And if it is the mana that troubles you, feel free to use every single magic stone of the kingdom and more.”
Eruhaben wasn’t even surprised at the Crown Prince´s offer. It wasn’t really anything new to him as he was used such preferential treatment.
“I don´t think you understand what the main problem is.”
Choi Han leaned back in his chair, listening closely to the conservation. On the other hand, Tasha leaned forward.
“Then explain it to us, Eruhaben-nim.”
The ancient dragon looked at the Dark Elf for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright; to perform this spell, I´d need to know how to cast it. The problem is that for these kinds of spells a casting-formula doesn’t exist, since the spell doesn’t exist, so I´d need to think of a plausible casting-formula first. The problem by doing this is that creating a casting-formula doesn’t even allow a single mistake. Furthermore, it takes a lot of mana to just leave it be. Doing this isn’t the problem here though. The problem is that even if I perform the casting-formula and cast the spell, there is a high chance of it being a flop and not doing what it is supposed to do. Such a high risk-plan cannot be our main plan.”
Alberu nodded, somehow understanding the problem. So the problem wasn’t really that Eruhaben couldn’t do the spell, but rather that the ancient dragon thought it had too high of a risk for being the main plan.
The problem here was that they weren’t able to come up with any other “main plan”, so this would have to do for now until they somehow managed to think of something else – or, in the best case, it would go well and they would succeed with this plan and spell.
“Please still try it and tell us the results by the end of the week-“
“We don´t have to wait that long. I can just do it here so all of you can see that this won´t work.”
Rosalyn got excited for once, finally being able to see a completely “new” spell from someone as mighty as an ancient dragon who has reached the peak of magic since a long while ago.
Eruhaben pushed his seat back and stood up, the whole time he looked at the floor. He walked around, sometimes touching the floor with his long hands, until he managed to find an area that he liked – or something like that.
What the ancient dragon did next shocked the other five people sitting in the room. Instead of just starting to cast the spell like any other casual spell, Eruhaben cut his palm with his golden dust and let his precious blood drip over the floor area. After two minutes and nineteen seconds, he stopped and quickly withdrew his hand, though a last blood drop fell down as the clock hit the twenty second mark.
The ancient dragon was visibly upset about it, but lastly decided to shrug it off. So he continued on, now crunching down and drawing a triangle with his blood, then a circle around it. After that was done, he wrote some words in a different language around the circle. As soon as he finished the “blood-painting”-step, he ascended and wiped his blood on his clothes.
He stepped into the triangle, careful not to step on the red lines. Choi Han and the others watched silently, not immediately understanding what was currently going on. Usually, the ancient dragon snapped with his fingers and as soon as that was done, his wished spell would appear. Not once before have they seen him performing this kind of ´ritual´ if one could call it that.
“Alright, all of you have to close your eyes now.”
They did as they were told. The only sound they heard was Eruhaben´s calm voice chanting some sort of poem in another language, one no one could quite understand yet. After he was done, it was silent for a few seconds. No one dared to open their eyes again until they were told so, but the permission didn’t come.
Choi Han was the first who still opened his eyes, immediately getting a good look on the frozen Eruhaben who looked at a spot somewhere behind him in the direction of the Crown Prince. His gaze followed the dragon´s and not even a second after, he gasped.
And those who were around him and knew him to a certain degree were aware that Choi Han never gasped. They quickly followed the swordsmaster and opened their eyes, now looking at something above the Crown Prince´s seat.
Shock was visible on each of their faces, disbelief as well.
Especially the ancient dragon couldn’t quite understand what was currently going on. Was this an illusion caused by someone who worked for the White Star and somehow entered this room? This couldn’t be real, never!
“Am I seeing things now?”
Bud was the first to say something, that sentence was immediately followed by sudden pressure that was even felt by Eruhaben.
“Well, I don´t know if you´re seeing things. Only you can know since it´s your eyes and not mine…”
An extremely calm voice, void of any emotions, answered to the sudden question. The voice was unfamiliar, new. They hadn’t even heard it a single time ever since they´ve been alive. It was a somehow calming voice, yet it managed to give everyone the chills at the same time. The stoic expression on the face of the person who said this didn’t help either.
Blood red hair, reddish-brown big eyes framed by long, black lashes, skin almost as pale as snow, thin, cherry lips and a defined jawline – the person in front of them beat all the existing beauty standards and not just rivaled Eruhaben in terms of beauty.
The man had his long hair tied up in a loose ponytail, the lose strands didn’t get any attention from him. His clothes weren´t usual clothes, he wore a black suit which only royal nobles of the richest families could afford. His slender legs were clothed in tight, black pants. But this wasn’t the most eye-catching thing on him, but rather the golden blazon on his chest.
The crest of the family it was from wasn’t visible though.
“…What the fuck…”
The gorgeous man immediately looked at the strongest swordsmaster in the room, not a second later he was standing next to him, looking at the sitting man. Choi Han immediately jumped up, not caring whether he would knock over the fancy chair.
“It´s rude to not introduce yourself, you know. After all you´ve just summoned me.”
The room fell silent, then all eyes fell on the perfectly fine looking dragon who managed to hide his inner anxiety and fear. As he was a mighty dragon, he was probably the only one who could feel the immense, otherworldly pressure from the being he summoned, and without question it even managed to rival the pressure he had felt after the fight with the White Star.
The strange thing was that he still had all his mana left…even after having “successfully” performed the summoning spell.
“We…summoned you?”
The summoned man turned his head to look at the handsome man sitting in the most luxurious chair, hands folded under his chin while looking all composed. The redheaded being almost laughed, but managed to continue his poker face.
“Why else would I be here if I weren´t summoned? And who else if not you could have summoned me?”
The summoned being turned his head towards the ancient, now entirely confused dragon.
“Don´t worry buddy, I don´t need mana to be summoned and also don´t consume it. There are three conditions that must be fulfilled to summon me – so think of yourself as lucky.”
Eruhaben almost snorted.
Almost.
A being which was a summon, a summon that didn’t consume mana and had certain conditions that needed to be fulfilled in order to summon it? And a summon that was also as strong as this one?
Just what had the ancient dragon brought upon himself and these cursed lands? He didn’t know of any being meeting those conditions-
He did know of some being…
…but that was impossible.
Or could he have summoned a…demonic being?
“What are the conditions?!”
Even though he tried not to, Eruhaben sounded desperate to know. The summoned being smirked and slowly walked towards the ancient dragon; not even losing an ounce of grace. He looked human, but the aura surrounding him certainly wasn’t. He also didn’t have any demon-like appearance or anything in that direction.
A foot in front of Eruhaben, he stopped.
“Tsk, you don´t even know the conditions to fulfill in order to summon me. How on earth did you manage it?”
Eruhaben looked at the smaller man in front of him (that was actually the summoned being). The expression in his reddish-brown eyes was serious and even seemed to be a bit troubled. Quickly Eruhaben recited every single step he had taken in order to summon the man in front of him.
After listening and ignoring the other´s questions, the summoned being let out an emotionless laugh. It sounded cold and threatening.
“Buddy, you messed up big time.”