The Bleeding Skies (4/4)
Suddenly, the dragoness's eyes grow red with rage, and smoke starts seeping out of her mouth.
Without a word, Drakavar charges through the tunnels and goes straight to a hidden corner.
Blood… There's blood everywhere. Most of it has seeped into the ground by now, though she can see that some of the blood is in long streaks, suggesting that whoever was bleeding crawled on the ground.
Seeing the blood and smelling who it belonged to, Drakavar's body goes cold and still, yet her breathing is becoming more and more labored.
The Goddess closes her eyes, and the World Elemental beneath whispers her memory to the dragoness.
From what the Elemental is saying, it seems that some foreign gods had come to this place and tried to steal the children away.
The blood got there when the foreign gods took out a knife and tested the children's blood, to see if they were "authentic Elder Gods".
Saiyana – the name Drakavar has given the Fox girl – struggled and got away – injuring herself in the process and nearly bleeding to death.
In the end, however, the gods recaptured her again and left the cave.
After these images finish filtering through Drakavar's mind, the Goddess looks down at the ground, and her golden eyes glow with pure, mad hatred.
"… I told you what would happen if they were hurt...," Drakavar whispers.
As Drakavar whispers these words, the entire world quakes in fear. Cities crumble from the violent quaking, and the mountains rearrange themselves – all of this, a cry for mercy from the World Elemental.
"One last chance," Drakavar hisses. The spit falling from her mouth burns so hot that it melts little holes into the stone floor. "Are the children still on this world? Are they safe?"
Desperate to survive, the earth shows the Goddess more images – images of the gods taking the children away and disappearing into the World Tree's dimension; they were definitely fleeing to another world.
Drakavar's eyes slightly narrow, and she frowns. Without any hint of mercy, she says in a low, cold voice, "If the children aren't here, then it shouldn't matter if I get rid of you."
Like a headsman swinging his ax down on a condemned criminal, Drakavar flicks her tail, and the force of the blow cuts clean through the entire world.
The Elemental gives one, last, dying scream as her body is hewn in two, and the two halves slowly drift further apart from each other.
Drakavar looks down at her work and flicks her tail again. This sends one severed half of the world hurling off into space in one direction.
As the black dragon flies up and into the World gate, she completely ignores the quadrillions of tons of magma spilling out of the mantle of the earth, as the yolk spills out of a cracked egg.
The cries of pain and death behind her coming the dying inhabitants of this world is even less concerning to her.
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As Drakavar floats in the black void where this world used to be, she snarls and thinks to herself, 'I'll find those gods – kill them all until they give up what they have stolen… Then, I'll kill them anyway.'
But… Drakavar immediately thinks of a problem. 'No, I can't let my anger get the better of me. I want to just kill every god I come across, but that would waste too much time.'
She thinks some more on this and growls, 'No. I may be powerful, but I can't be everywhere at once.' A look of disgust flashed across her face. 'I didn't want to have to use THEM, but they're still alive, and they'll be useful…'
Feeling a little unwilling, Drakavar shifts into her dragon form, then roars – her voice disappearing into nothing, out here in empty space.
However, despite there being no air to carry her voice, her call echoes across the cosmos. Her voice may not be physically heard, but every inch of the universe can feel her Will giving its first command.
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In one world, there is a family picking corn from a field. In another world, a tired salary man is on his way home from work. In another world, a mother and father hold their child for the first time and smile in joy.
Everyone has their own lives to live and things to do. They all speak their own languages, and they likely don't even know about each other.
However, for the first time since the universe's inception, everyone shares the same sight.
Up there, in the sky of every world, the air gains a red hue, as if the Mistress of the Physical world were bleeding. Storms are spontaneously created, and tornadoes ravage the landscape. Every Elemental can feel the Goddess's anger, and they all tremble in fear.
Many of the people living on these worlds take the red skies as a simple weather phenomenon, while some take it as an omen for the "end of the world". Time Scryers literally bleed to death when they try to foretell what this red sky means… Mass panic ensues. Even the untrained, magicless children can feel a creeping danger in the air, like the air itself has grown hostile.
Oddly enough, the only people who don't panic are the dragons.
Instead of panicking, every dragon in every world simultaneously stands at attention and feels a deep command in their blood:
'Find the Black-haired Fox and the White-haired Wolf. Kill anyone who gets in your way! Also, kill anyone who flees through a World Gate! There is to be NO traffic between the Worlds until my Treasures are found!!'
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Drakavar issues her command, then she pauses for a moment, feeling lost. After giving out her order, she really has no idea what she should do next.
She, more than anyone, understands just how big the Universe really is. In all honesty, her 2 little Treasures could be anywhere by now!
This helpless feeling only serves to make Drakavar more and more agitated.
As the hate in her heart rises like a furnace, the whites of her eyes go red, and smoke billows out of her mouth in a great fog – obscuring everything about her, except for her two, glowing golden eyes, which are shining through the darkness like 2 beacons.
Drakavar doesn't have to wait long before she feels nearly a dozen gods emerge from the nearest World Gate.
If she had been thinking clearly, then she'd have known that these newcomers are just the neighboring gods who protect the world next door.
On any other Tuesday, she'd have no quarrel with these 'goody-two-shoes' types. However, when she senses the divine energy on them, her heart uncontrollably wells with rage.
Then… her mind goes blank, and there's a short lapse in her memory…
…
When Drakavar wakes up again, she finds herself floating in a field of dismembered body parts. Right now, she's passively chewing on a severed arm – the thing still leaking some residual divine energy.
Feeling surprised, she pits the arm out and wipes her blood arms on the man's severed sleeve. "Bleh. Too fat."
… She pauses…
'Wait! I can't let my mind blank out again! It'll waste too much time! Yes, yes, I can't get too angry. Din always says that I need to control my temper.' She nods. 'Mhmm… I need to focus on finding the children first, not venting my anger.'
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-The Present-
Freyya emerges from her hiding place with her trusty concealing enchantments. She'd seen the whole process of Das showing up and taking Haalfrin away against his will, yet she did nothing to stop it.
It's part of the Ritual that her husband be taken, after all.
Freyya steps up and sighs to herself, "Das… You keep on trying to take what's mine."
Feeling some hesitation, she finally steels her resolve, 'There's no more turning back after this.' The next part of the Ritual requires her to do some pretty drastic things.
'Well, first off, it's time to make the sky bleed a little,' she thinks. Tenderly, she reaches into her space bag and pulls out a drop of blood. This is the blood of a 7-Horned dragon, and by using it, Freyya can issue one command to the Elementals.
So, Freyya uncorks the blood bottle and lets the blood drop into the ground.
Instantly, the power in the blood explodes in a red aura, and the skies above her turn red.
'All right. It's time to start a war.'