The Dragonslayer (title is a w.i.p.)

Chapter 11

Armin woke up later than usual and immediately put on all his equipment, remembering to keep the sword and mirror on his back. He had moved the dragon blood into a proper glass bottle he had gotten from the hotel owner. He walked outside and towards where Whek would be. Once there, the guards, as usual, took away all his weapons and things, but when they went to the mirror, they were curious.

"What's this for?" one of them asked.

"Quite frankly, I don't know," replied

"Elaborate," said another starkly. Armin chose his next words cautiously:

"A very trustworthy friend gave it to me and advised me to take it with me, but didn't explain why." He decided upon The guards looked at him suspiciously but didn't break the silence. Once Armin was done with this, he was told to wait, as Whek was praying at the time and couldn't be disturbed.

After a while, he was permitted to enter. Whek stood in the room with all of the glass equipment she had before.

"Well, give it to me," she said calmly without even looking at Armin. "I already know you have it."

"Before I give it to you, what is it for?" Armin asked cautiously,

"You'll find out very soon."

"I want to know now; I might not want to if I know why."

"Exactly," said Whek, still not looking at Armin, "if I tell you, I might not get it."

"So you know that whatever it is isn't something I would want to do?"

"Yes"

"Well, then I won't give it to you, will I?"

"Oh no, you will."

"What do you mean, you can't control me?"

"You're completely unarmed, where I have my entire arsenal of lethal poisons and deadly chemical weapons, spells, guards, and grenades. I could extremely easily kill you and take it; you don't actually have a choice."

Armin stayed in place and said nothing as he realised this reality. He couldn't surprise Whek as she could read his mind; his only chance would be a clever plan, but she could anticipate any plan. Eventually he handed over the bottle, and Whek thanked him.

"You can leave now."

Armin left the room, and his weapons were returned to him. He walked back to the hotel to collect all his belongings, and Brashik, as he went to pay, heard a commotion outside. They both ran outside and looked up, like everybody else was. Up on the top of the tallest building right in the centre of Dohl Gago was Whek, with her cloak's hood down, revealing her face. Her hands, however, were concealed. The city of Dohl Gago was no longer just one of the two colour schemes, now swirling between the two. Armin was very confused as to how the materials were changing so rapidly, but decided that probably wasn't important at the moment. At the top of the city, Whek began a supercilious speech,

"Citizens of Dohl Gago, we all know that in the beginning there was only one, Ultima-Devi, the ultimate being. It used its power to create the land, the sea, the sky, the animals, the sun, the weather, and the wanderers. The Wanderers were semi-omnipotent beings that used what had been created and expanded upon it, making mankind, among other inferior races, great weapons for us to command and basic civilizations. But then the Wanderers had a disagreement with Ultima-Devi, so they split it into two inferior beings: one who sought vengeance and one who sought peace; these two were Denvis-Devi and Treyeis-Devi. Denvis-Devi purged the land with its great power, seeking to destroy the Wanderers, but in its path, it destroyed the peaceful civilizations. To this end, Treyeis-Devi used all of its might to split Denvis-Devi into three elemental dragons, but the Wanderers, in their confusion, thought Treyeis-Devi was the one trying to kill them, and in its time of weakness, split it into three more elemental dragons. These six dragons bred with other lizards to create the thriving species of dragons we have today, but the original six were far more powerful and therefore earned the title of dragon lords. If the DNA of these were combined to recreate Denvis-Devi and Treyeis-Devi, then we could infuse them using magic and recreate Ultima-Devi. Then it would be seen that we, the Gagoans, were the only ones who worshipped Ultima-Devi through and through, no matter what, and that we, the superior people, deserved to rule over all others, man or animal. If you truly love our God, you will sacrifice yourself to your master, knowing this will land you in eternal peace and forever cemented as a great martyr." With this, most of the crowd cheered, and Whek revealed in her hands two bottles of bubbling liquids, one black like tar and the other a shining white like the sun. Then her guards revealed two large, winged lizards who were force-fed the liquids, one with the black and one with the white. An extremely bright light emitted from one and an extremely dark void from the other. Once they had cleared away and the lizards were once again visible, it was clear they had transformed into Denvis-Devi and Treyeis-Devi. The two dragons hovered in the air for a while, but before they became conscious of their new situation, Whek raised her arms, one of which now had a staff in it. The staff was an intricately carved stick that looped at the top with an orange gem floating in the middle of it. Both dragons were enveloped in an orange glow and got frozen where they were, then Whek started chanting something, and her guards encouraged everyone in the crowd to join in, including Armin.