""A war!" Arulli shouted in protest.
I agreed with him whole heartedly. "This planet can barely circle the sun, and you want to wage war on its soils. I, as I am, could destroy the earth, what do you think something of this calibre would achieve!"
Fev took a deep breath. "Let me explain it brother."
"Okay."
"I will start with what me and my brother have become, we are mages, the first ever to be. We can use spells by exciting the elements of reality. We have skills that allow us to use spells. We have also acquired something thought to be impossible or at least theorised to be an exceptional feat if accomplished. What we have not however is the strength of the knights, and the power over patterns."
Fev had said it, getting two powers was an exceptional feat indeed. First of all, many have attempted this, mostly those that have manifested or those that felt limited by their only power. But me and Ouran had stopped this because, even if true, it was a fools errant to put two full oranges in one's mouth before you chewed and swallowed the first.
We had come set our sights on mastering the first power first, eventually stopping and abandoned our attempts at a second power, but these two have pulled it off somehow.
Power may be clearer to me at this point but back then I was still grappling with the truth that two powers could be subjugated. From what these two said, I picked up on something important, the fact that these properties had to have a commonality to be learned. The fact that they had learned two powers, made me want to hear them out.
"why would this matter?"
Rev, the brother replied. "The dragons are not fools; they are wise. They told us that they hypothesised from us learning these power that something could be done about our current predicament.
If we were to begin a war, everything would end, but they think, if the world's first mages, me and Fev, as well as the knight known for his utility, and help from the Laurels, a solution could be found. Me and my sister never forgot about that day we saw you craft Sir Arulli.
With your crafting, the powers of the elementals, and the strength of the knights, I also believe that our problem could be turned around."
This was a hard decision for me because of two reasons. Back in the times, right after the death of the hero of power, the elements began to immerge. Of the many elements, only two started a controversy within the people.
The first was the element darkness. It looked alike to the darkness we all came to know and love, but it did not depend on the time of day, and even though it felt creepy, it did not induce the kind of fear destroyers did. The only thing it did was rob the people of sight when submerged within its depths. Which led us to naming it just plain old elemental darkness.
The second was light element. When it first emerged, all hoped that it would repeal the darkness as daylight did. But just like fire, and all other forms of light, once inside the darkness, it shone no more, having little to no effect. It crushed the people's spirits. Though it is a good power in battle, it did not make the darkness shy away.
These two contradicted each other, and that we eventually figured was due to the two properties being polar opposites to each other. Regardless of their relationship, we could not even discern the reason as to why the light of the sun repelled the darkness at dawn.
But we had to find out all this the hard way. When the elements first appeared, we all thought it was a big break, as such we dedicated a lot of research, time, and effort into the avenue. This is how the paladins, knights specialising in the light elemental, came to be.
The power itself was formidable, and this is why even after its failure to live up to our expectations, we kept the existence of the paladin regiment. That battle however had not produced the results we had predicted. And the resources used were gone.
In the same manner, these two have presented a convincing plan, which funnily enough, also came from the elements. Not only that, but they had also just admitted to having two powers and treated it like a secondary achievement when compared to their plan. I had few reasons to deny them, but I did.
I had my doubts, just as with the other plan, and until I could simulate the environment in which this plan could work, I would not let their lives go to the slaughter.
A month later, in the morning, both of the twins were gone, including Arulli, three whole squadrons of knights, and Laurel Do."
"That would be my que."
The Knight turned to face her. Yet, even now, it still felt like it was staring at the same person, only Laurel Do wore a strange outfit, similar to the robe Cathina wore. It was more cleaned up, and had symbols from all seven elements, the Knight did not recognise one of them.
"I was assigned to collect Arulli's memories, and my other duties included guiding special directives like this one. Arulli came to me, begging me to come. I knew right then that you had said no, and this is why I said no too.
But you know Arulli, he wouldn't quit. And since I was privy to his memories, he would speak to himself/me around the clock, using every second he had free to negotiate, beg, or even reason with me.
One day he came to me in person to find me already packed. This was because I honestly wanted to believe in Arulli, also this would be my first special directive, and I thought I would collect more specialised data. In the morning, I found out all of them were more than ready to leave.
Other than Arulli, there were two other knight Bachelors, one was from Lerva's guard detail, Kol, the other was Jixon. The others were the twins, Rev and Fev, then there were three entire knight squadrons, each belonging to their respective knight Bachelor. At that moment, I understood why they needed me – the other knights would have never come without my explicit involvement, I doubt even the dragons would agree if it was otherwise.
What I did not know was what Arulli explained to me shortly after I asked him.
"Is this all you have to face the darkness in a war?"
"Not really. This is an exploit rather than the army. All of us here, are going to journey across the earth to a portal the dragons have created and protected till today. In there, we will become more than we are right now. We will return with that strength and teach the others and eventually begin the war."
Before I even spoke, Lerva spoke from behind us.
"So, you're going to the Realms?"
We all turned back, shocked at her presence. Arulli spoke almost immediately, as if he knew that she would know.
"Yes, it's our only choice at this point."
We then left as she stared at us from the academy doors, vanishing inside, she wasn't one for wasting time, I should know, I am just as her.
It took us a few years to fight through the darkness on our way to the portal. This was because our goal was not to defend or impede, but to pass through as quickly as we could.
The Realms were made known to us by the forest folk. The royals summoned strong spirits who would teach their descendants but also taught them about the Realms. Before now, it was impossible to go there, but Arulli had explained that the dragons had used all seven elements to tear a hole in the fabric of reality, creating a doorway.
Of the scarce information we had about the realms, we were told that there were beings who guarded the normal passes to the Realms, the divine. These beings kept all in order. The Realms is a world as large as the world of the Living, as vast and endless as the stars in our skies. And the dragon's hope, was that in there we would figure out something previously unknown to all of us.
The portal they had opened was unauthorised as such, it had no guardians, so we would be able to pass easily. In due time, we arrived at the dragon's stronghold, where they all convened and guarded the portal against the darkness.
When we got there, we met them, the Red Scorch legion, Waeria legion, Nyrebus legion, Osmi legion, Breath legion, Aeon Monad legion, and the Acxiquark legion. Over millions of dragons all creating a dome around the portal floating at the centre. Keeping out the darkness at all costs.
To greet us was one of each type of dragon. They spoke and the twins translated for us. First spoke Red Scorch, his scales as deep as the blood of the dying, and a figure meant to strike fear arching to speak to us.
"Is this all that you managed to bring on a journey for a lifetime?"
The one with blue scales interrupted, covered in a thick mist, one would almost miss it's chilled figure. Waeria chose to add to the conversation instead of letting Arulli answer.
"It doesn't matter Red; I trust my babies to have done their best in assembling a worthy vanguard."
She was followed by Nyrebus, the one with scales so white they contradicted the dark atmosphere in the dragon dome, and bulging muscle contours that didn't even create shade in their valleys. "Again, with the babies thing. They have no scales; they are human darling. But I do say, I'm proud to hear that training them was not for nothing."
"I see you still like taking credit for everything Nyrebus," spoke Osmi, scales only second in darkness to the darkness itself, and mighty claws that shone like obsidian, "after all, I'm the one who taught the first human a second power. Tell her Rev, I'm the mightier teacher."
Irritated scales of yellow veered their head through the crowd of dragons, snaking it's way to the front. Breath, the dragon of life, had not much patience for their dilly dawdling. "Can all of you stop your nonsense, they have to get moving now, the darkness isn't due for another few hours, and they need to prepare for entry. Living flesh is not allowed in the Realms, we don't know what kind of changes will befall their equipment or they themselves."
With a loud flap of it's mighty wings, Aeon Monad spoke. Their scales had a glass hue, that sparkled like diamond even in the dark. "Breath is right. They have to be on their way, so let us keep it short. I and the others have prepared scale tokens for each of you; it should be able to keep any of your constituents from fading."
At first, the seventh dragon had not even looked down at us, it's gaze was single mindedly focused on the horizon, awaiting the arrival of the darkness. But as the dragons took more of our time, it turned around, facing us.
All of the dragons had a distinct look outside the colour and shape of their scales, but Acxiquark had a profound shade. Every scale was a shade of grey, that reflected an ambiguous meaning into me. True to the rumours, one could find the true purpose of anything ever be, all hidden within a grey dragon's scales, it was just a bit ambiguous in meaning.
"I do say, I never thought mother would come. For whatever reason I can ascertain, this exploit is meant to have a purpose but not one so grand it would warrant your appearance. But I am glad to see you have heeded our call, truly, thank you mother."
As it said this, all the other dragons went quite, all bowing their heads to me. I could feel their solemn appreciation for my presence, and the fact that I thought that their effort was not a waste of time. So, in kind, I responded to them.
"I say that your courage itself is something to warrant my attention. Your efforts bring a great joy to all of us Laurels. May the day that people stop fighting against the darkness never come again."
With that they sent us on our merry way. Each of us were given a token from each dragon, in which they had casted spells on to give us their support. Only the twins didn't get any since their staffs were a seven in one token that could do even more.
We readied ourselves, making sure we were not caught off guard upon entry.
An hour after arriving we entered the dome. Upon arrival we were shocked by the scene unfolding before us, a kind of view that would inspire the most beautiful of poems, but before we could even take in the whole site, a grotesque figure with mighty beating wings blotted out the skies before us. And this would be the first encounter with the divine to be documented."