History would never forget that day.
The residents of Kuravanuluox awoke to something strange in the air, and realized their city had been invaded. Black shadows danced and writhed outside their windows, beating on the panes and wordlessly screaming, “Open up!” Some also saw a black dragon flying through the sky above the city─but while it was certainly a dragon, it was not the gatekeeper of Kuravanuluox. This thing had no majestic horns atop its head, and its whole body was smooth, with a long tail drooping all the way from the sky to the center of the town below. And that tail seemed to be the source of the shadows that had suddenly appeared within the city walls.
“Where’s the gatekeeper?! Where is our dragon?!”
“What’s going on? I thought the foreigners only had one dragon!!”
“We should never have come back…! We’ve angered the envoys from the Forbidden Land…!”
But moments later the screams and wails of despair were replaced by cheers. Sensing something was wrong, the gatekeeper had rushed back to Kuravanuluox. In an instant the writhing shadows disappeared from the city, and the hornless interloper turned to fly away. But the gatekeeper would not let it escape.
The two dragons were roughly equal in size, but the gatekeeper, with its twisted horns, was heavier, faster, and more powerful. The hornless dragon, however, seemed to be flying around some strange track that ignored the very laws of physics, almost as if it was toying with the gatekeeper. For a time, the two dragons rose and fell, circling in a dancing path above the city.
“Aid the gatekeeper! Protect the city!” someone shouted.
Some among the people of Kuravanuluox who had gone to the free district had returned with mana potions in their possession. These they used to charge their wizard guns, then began firing them up into the sky. Fitted out to track their prey, these guns were intended for bringing down thaumatheria, and were sure to deal some real damage─but numerous tentacles emerged from the hornless black dragon’s body and simply pulled the bullets into its enveloping darkness.
The volley from the wizard guns had succeeded in distracting their target for a split second, however, long enough for the gatekeeper’s long tail to land a direct hit. The hornless dragon’s body gave way like it was made of liquid and splashed away into the air. Part of that inky, oozing splatter transformed into a bird about the size of a thaumatherium, atop which stood a lone girl, her golden hair fluttering in the wind. She quickly flattened herself against the back of the bird, and it shot off like an arrow.
The gatekeeper did not give chase. Instead it calmly flapped its wings, hovering over the city. Then its whole body trembled and split into three parts. The large main body of the dragon remained where it was, while the two smaller offshoots flew off after the girl on the black bird.
+++
“I should have expected the blasted thing would be able to divide itself─! This certainly complicates thiiiiiiiings!” Screaming into the wind, Los turned to see the two smaller dragons closing in on her. She nimbly avoided their teeth and claws as she made for the appointed meeting place.
The intention had been to avoid any fighting above the city itself in the hopes of minimizing casualties, but the black dragon didn’t seem to care much for their plans.
Perhaps I was a mite ostentatious…
Realizing just how little leeway she had, Los clicked her tongue. “Shan’t even give me the time to right myself, eh…?!”
With the interference from her assailants on the ground, Los had slipped partway to the side, when suddenly she was struck squarely by the black dragon’s tail. She lost consciousness for a moment, and it was only the Staff of Ludens’s will that kept her from falling. In the past, the staff had only been capable of action when Los was using it, but of late it had begun walking on its own. And if Los happened to let it slip from her grasp, it would transform into a bird and save her, as it had today.
“I will not brook being considered a mere accessory! I myself am an ancient and venerable witch!” Leaving the Staff of Ludens to steer their flight, Los rummaged around for a magic potion and hurled it at one of the dragons that pursued her. “Have at thee! The Mud-Black Witch Special─a concoction ‘way too crazy’ for the hands of the general public! Didst feel a teensy twinge at that?!”
But the small dragon burst through the clearing smoke, unharmed.
Los clicked her tongue again. “Heath cannot pierce thy scales, and explosives do naught to rattle thee… Hm?” Something was hurtling headlong toward her at incredible speed, and she narrowed her eyes. “Heath and the Dragon Conqueror King?! But I am not yet at our meeting─”
Point?! Even as the last shouted word left her lips, the dragon raced past Los without so much as slowing down.
“They make for the city?! Verily naught proceeds according to plan, little Ludens…!”
In addition to Heath, Los, and Ghoda, the trio of Saybil, Kudo, and Hort had also been dispatched to bring down the black dragon. Zero, Mercenary, the priest, and Lily remained behind in the free district, along with a people’s militia armed with weapons from the merchants and led by Har.
Heath now carried Ghoda and Kudo on his back, which left Hort and Saybil at the meeting point.
“’Tis perhaps the best combination we could have hoped for…?”
Taking speed and maneuverability into consideration, Heath could carry at most two people on his back, and given the possibility that the dragon might be injured in the fight, Kudo was the obvious choice to join Ghoda.
I only hope that Hort’s magic will work against these two small dragons─
The thought of it failing, and of Hort and Saybil being devoured as a result, flashed through Los’s mind, and she ground her teeth. “Curses! I should at least crush one of the blasted things─!”
Los turned, and gulped. The two dragons had joined again into a single beast, doubling in size in the process…and its jaws were all too close.
Having separated from the whole, I suppose I should have expected the beasts could combine once more!
Without a moment’s hesitation, Los jammed the Staff of Ludens into the dragon’s mouth. The staff creaked, and bent─
And with a dull crack, it snapped in two.
“─Huh?” Los looked blankly at the broken staff.
Inconceivable. For three hundred years I have sought a way to break it. I have journeyed near and far in search of a place and time to die.
And is that time now?
Is that place here?
The dragon’s fangs were closing in─and with the Staff of Ludens broken, Los would die if they sank into her flesh.
No. Something is strange.
Faced with imminent death, Los’s mind began to race.
The Staff of Ludens has a demon sealed inside, a pitiful demon who cannot leave it, cannot so much as move─the staff is a prison. And now that prison is broken. Where will the Demon of Ludens go, now that it is free? Did it return to its demonic roost the moment the staff snapped? Did it go and leave me here?
I cannot believe it, Los thought. I cannot.
At this stage, Los’s body was only preserved by the power of the Staff of Ludens. Her flesh had been destroyed any number of times, but each time the staff had put her back together like a broken doll. If the demon’s power evaporated, Los would be gone in an instant.
’Tis merely speculation, of course─
But Los believed. She and the staff had been partners for so many long years.
And so: “─Ludens!”