Dragonlord

Ep 38. Do You Know My Name? (4)

‘…This was what they were capable of.’

Serenis meekly thought to herself as she strolled through the night alone. Without Patrick or Light accompanying her as her usual times outside, she was able to properly examine the city’s scenery now: rows of bright-colored buildings; neat, tidy street of bricks and stone; artificial lights that lit the night as bright as day in its still busy streets. Streams of water soothingly flowed throughout the city, with trimmed trees and patches of flowers decorating the occasional empty spaces.

Some parts of the city were undoubtedly built and powered by magic; the rest functioned beyond the dragonlord’s understanding. She had not a single clue how these glorified lamps (read: streetlights) were able to remain alit for hours without magic every single night.

It was a worldly difference from the small villages of straw huts she remembered from her own era. The most advanced human architecture she’d seen were castles built of wood and clay, or the occasional stones. When night fell, darkness would swallow the world.

But left to their own devices for a thousand years, mankind had accomplished so much more. The star seemed to have turned upright, and the state of human civilization was beyond anything Serenis could’ve imagined. Nothing seemed the same – not their cities, nor their people.

Perhaps this was the future that the First envisioned: a future without demonkind and their lords. A world that would never cease to grow in the hands of man.

Once, the brethren had been oppressors. They had cared little for what humans could do. Although the dragonkin under her rule had always been the oddities that treated mankind as people, in a typical demon’s eyes, man was insignificant; theirs was a civilization no different than a candle flame that could flicker out at the lightest breeze. Their lives amounted to little. Demons had faithfully held onto that belief.

But the world Serenis now beheld was denying her brethren’s beliefs, proving how wrong they’d been for thousands of years. A potential killed under their oppression was finally bearing fruit.

‘Perhaps they have every right to call us evil.’

As Serenis explored her thoughts, her steps led the dragon back to the park where she’d encountered the beasts earlier. She wanted to explore the sewer’s depth to affirm her suspicions about the origins of those beasts, but when she’d finally arrived at the sewer’s entrance, the dragonlord noticed a pair of humans standing watch – likely the enforcement sector’s personnel.

‘Hm. I wonder if Patrick’s at another entrance…’

But right as the dragon was about to decide on a way to sneak her way in, Serenis could hear small whispers of conversation in a small patch of trees nearby. When she spared a brief glance, a familiar pair could be seen standing behind the shadows of leaves and branches.

“…Light, I can do a lot of things, but sneaking isn’t really one of them. Isn’t there some secret backdoor to the sewer?”

“There is, but…you’re too big. I don’t think even I could fit through them anymore.”

“…”

Serenis quietly approached the whispering pair, circling the park to not disturb the agents on guard.

“Ilias.”

“Huh?...Lord Serenis? What’re you doing here?”

“The same thing you two are up to.”

The dragonlord shifted her gaze to the half girl beside Ilias. Light was shivering just like before, but the gleam in her eyes clearly showed her intent to stay.

In fact, Light seemed to be on her guard, warily staring at her peer. After all, it hadn’t been long since she’d stopped the dragonlord from chasing after her friends into the tunnel.

“…Did you come back to kill them after all?”

“If necessary.”

A tense air filled the atmosphere between the two students. Ilias hurriedly intervened with what little mediating skills she had, stepping in between to stop them from staring each other to death.

“Uhm, settle down! We’re just here to, you know, uh…capture them. Yeah, capture. There’s no need to kill anyone.”

“Depending on the circumstances, I-“

Ilias creaked her head towards her lord. The desperation in the youngling’s eyes immediately convinced Serenis to correct herself.

“…I was merely curious what those beasts had been. I suppose there’s no need to kill them.”

“See, Light? It’s fine, she’s not going to do them any harm. I’m sure she’ll help us. Riiight?”

“Of…course.”

The half girl’s distrusting eyes fell on the dragonlord. Ilias’ reassurance did little to do away her suspicions, but at least they weren’t outright hostile anymore.

“…Fine.”

Ilias retreated back a step with a relieved sigh. No more death stares was a good start.

“Okay, now we just need to figure out how to get in there then. Maybe if I break the ground open somewhere, we could…”

“There’s no need. Come.”

Serenis motioned for the two younglings to come closer. She laid a hand around both their waists, and soon, their figures faded out into the scenery. Despite standing exactly where they had been, no one could discern their figures from the background anymore.

Ilias simply found the spell useful and interesting. Light was internally freaking out.

“Wait, you can use invisibility spells? On multiple people at once?? We didn’t even cover this in class yet!”

“Ooh, you learn these things in class, Light? That sounds fun.”

“Quiet, both of you. Come.”

The three invisible figures quietly walked right past the guards, entering the sewers with ease. Serenis undid their spells once they were some ways in as they reappeared under the light of the hanging torches, standing on the underground canal’s floors.

“That was so cool! I guess not everyone gets to be a lord. I wish I could do stuff like that.”

“…No wonder the profs don’t bother waking you up.”

Despite the chatter, Serenis’ attention remained focus onto the corridor ahead. Only a few torches lit their path forward, and even expanding her mana sensory yielded nothing different from what her eyes could see; in a crowded city like Partivine, the readings yielded masses of mana tightly clustered across a random spread. Other than being within close proximity, it was impossible to tease the clusters apart from a distance.

“Now, where to find our two beasts…”

Light likewise stared into the darkness of the corridor. She balled her hands into small fists, shaking her head towards her peer.

“…There’s going to be a lot more than two. Probably hundreds.”

The dragons turned towards Light. Serenis simply blinked twice as she noted the unexpected count in silence – but Ilias couldn’t remain calm at the number. When Light had mentioned there’d be more, she was expecting maybe a dozen at most, not hundreds.

“Hundreds?! Light, I don’t think we can escape the city with that many…”

“…I know. But if we can find the doctor, he might be able to fix them back.”

“The doctor?”

“…Mhm. The person who made everyone like this.”

Serenis mused at the remark. It seemed like the half girl had a clear destination in mind.

“I’m assuming you have the means to find this individual?”

“Yeah…I remember the way there.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Numerous mana bullets cleanly buried themselves into the deformed male’s shoulders and legs, but did little besides making the man-like beast groan in pain. And his pained cries of help were barely audible, buried in the laughter of the doctor accompanying him.

“Ehaha, hahahaha! H, h, how long can you r, run away, enforcer?!”

Iris bit her lips as another wave of magic struck at her. Fiery barriers shielded her momentarily, but soon gave away to the rays of light that exploded outwards. The impact sent Iris crashing into the far wall of the canal, pebbles and smoke haphazardly flying about.

‘…Do I have to do it? If I want to capture him without killing, then…’

Chirp! Chirp!

A sharp pain interrupted her thoughts as Iris looked down at her right hand. A blob of white scales had dug its teeth into her finger, with dozen others following suit behind their leader.

‘…Rats?!’

“Ehahaha! E, e, eat her alive, m, my children!”

“Kh…get off me!”

A burst of flames shrouded the enforcer’s arm, sending the rats running off from their meal. However, while Iris was occupied with the rats, the groaning beast charged up another beam of light towards her.

‘…Twelve be damned.’

Iris hurriedly spent what little mana she had left as she erected several layers of barriers before her. A few layers gave away as rays of light crashed onto their surface, and only the last layer had managed to hold.

The enforcer panted to catch her breath. A hand reached into her inner pockets and plucked out a black pill that was shoved down her throat. She forced herself to rise afterwards, her damaged legs struggling to support the body’s weight.

“M, my…are you perhaps s, s, short on m, mana?”

“Shut it. Aldrid made a mistake letting you be born.”

Iris wove her hand in the air as the path behind burst into flames, incinerating the colony of rats whole. The smell of burnt flesh began to fill the corridor as the enforcer held her ground, glaring into the doctor ahead of her.

“Ehehehe…hehahahaha…g, g, good…keep s, struggling…!”

When the doctor snapped his fingers, more glimmers of prismatic light began to shine, this time from within the shadows behind him. A chorus of pained groans accompanied thudding footsteps as two more man-based beasts emerged behind him.

‘More?!…There were more of the human types as well?!’

Iris belatedly opened a portal behind herself to retreat, but rays of light crashed into its entrance, destroying her escape path. Another beam would break the barrier spells she’d erect, and the final one would directly crash into her abdomen, sending the enforcer sprawling powerlessly across the burnt flesh of rodents.

“Ehehehe…we…we did it, my children! Good, good, v, very very good. A human subject is a, a, always, welcome.

The doctor approached Iris on the ground, producing a metal syringe from his lab coat. Its milky contents faintly glimmered in the dark as the needle was stabbed into the enforcer’s chest.

In her fading consciousness, Iris bleakly noted a burning sensation paving into her heart.