Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (155/?) WiP 1

Author’s Note: Hey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 155 I hope you guys enjoy! :D The revised version for Chapter 154 will be releasing tomorrow some time before the full release of Chapter 155! :D

The Great Forests of Elaseer. Alcove of the Forgotten. Matriarch’s Chambers. Local Time: ???

Many, Many Generations Ago.

???

The cave was dark, moist, damp, but worst of all—

Breathe in. Breathe out. 

—it smelt of dust and decay.

Hear my voice. The old crone droned.

Breathe in. She continued as if it was a prayer.

Breathe out. 

On and on and on and on.

…

It needed to stop.

Grandmother please—

I could feel the old relic stirring, her scales shifting, as her gems thrummed violently against the cave walls.

Keep your thoughts to yourself, child, and concentrate. She spoke, her thoughts purposeful, their images vivid; teasing and testing my patience for a world that was our birthright.

That sort of thinking is dangerous, Kaelthyr. The ‘matriarch’ warned… though the threats, as practiced and regal as they were in my mind, fell as flat and limp in my thoughts as the dead values she extolled.

I heard that. She continued dourly.

And? Perhaps you needed to hear that. Perhaps you need to understand that no amount of training or concentration in the old ways is going to bring it back.

Kaelthyr!

Maybe it’s about time someone stood up, that someone challenged this farce of an existence! I stood firm, placing my thoughts forward, making certain that everyone would feel the indignancy I felt, the frustration I embodied, and the inferno enveloping my soul. Look above you! What do you see?! Stone! Nothing but stone! This… ‘sanctuary’ is nothing more than a tomb, a catacomb for a dead empire. Our existence, our living, means nothing if we have no effect on the world. I stood firm, standing on all four legs to face what remained of our small congregation. What good is survival, when we survive for nothing but survival’s sake? That makes us no better than the animals they make us out to be. Mere beasts with only the siring of a new generation to look forward to, and nothing mor—

SILENCE! The matriarch erupted.

All thoughts halted, as my eyes glazed over in a fit of disorientation, confusion, and a surge of uncontrollable anguish.

It was then, and only then, when I was forced to the brink, that I finally started to slowly breathe, taking in controlled breaths, if not at the behest of the matriarch then simply for the survival of my own psyche.

You are still young. The matriarch’s words rang loudly, completely overwhelming my inner monologue, dangerously close to— replacing it. Our words resonated, causing fear to ripple through my very soul.

Be not afraid. For fear is to the flayers what blood is to the shark. Matriarch Syvrak warned darkly, her words still close to subsuming my own. I can feel your frustrations. She continued, her eyes soon shifting to all others present. All of your frustrations. She reiterated, her form never once flinching from the rocky pedestal she sat atop. But know that a thousand years of frustrated  turmoil is still preferable to the fate which awaits us outside of this sanctuary. 

I… would still dare… to tempt… such a fate. I managed out in between pained thoughts, each word more difficult to form than the next, let alone projecting it forward.

All eyes once more landed on me, either out of pity, concern, or even shock at my declaration of rebellion in all but name.

Though the matriarch’s eyes remained — as they always were — condescendingly nurturing.

You speak out of spite, and the ache of an unfelt sky. This, I understand. You are correct in asserting that the world is our birthright. However, you misunderstand what it is I hope to accomplish. The matriarch responded with poise, her wings flaring, causing the crystals around us to pulsate softly. Perhaps it is my own folly, for assuming you would understand at such an age. However, to sate your lust for your untested flame, I will expound on that which is our ultimate aim. The old dragon paused, reaching forwards with a hand outstretched. There exists a call, a distant hum, a droning from beyond the veil of a looming dark festering in its infancy. Its call is faint, a barely noticeable flicker of dark in the overwhelming light that connects us all. But it is there, and it is a glimmer of light at the end of this infernal tunnel in which we all reside.

I closed my eyes, focusing, attuning, offering my thoughts wholly to this fleeting thought.

…

But all I could see, the only thing I could sense, was a… disturbance. A small errant shift in the otherwise infallible web of our grand crystal lattices. 

To your eyes, it may seem like nothing. But in time, with experience, you will see what I see.

A minor aberrancy? I shot back scathingly.

The existence of something outside of Nexian perfection. A crack in the glass. One which shall grow with time.

=====

The Life Archives. Somewhere Underneath the Warehouse District. Crown Herald Town of Elaseer. Local Time: 

Kaelthyr

Breathe in. Breathe out.

I tried.

I desperately tried.

But each breath taken was pain… and nothing else.

Hear my voice… I cried out, even if I understood long ago that nobody was listening… or more accurately, no one was willing to answer.

Instead, I felt my mind… shattered, my psyche scattered across a thousand concurrent points. Words, symbols, images, and concepts both unknown and enigmatic flashing all at once in an incoherent daze.

There was no respite.

There was no more silence.

If anything, I got my wish… just in a way fate had dictated in my stead.

I saw it all, from everywhere, all at once… through words, whispers, and sights not of my own accord.

And yet, in that infinite cascade of unfathomable variety, I saw it.

It started as a mere flicker of dark in a whirlwind of light.

Then, it grew. Not in size, scale, nor scope… but in frequency.

I saw it more often in my periphery, these… conversations into the dark, the empty… the void.

I knew not how long these sojourns into the dark went.

However, I knew at least what they represented.

The coming dark.

And so I waited.

Months, years, decades, I did not know how long.

But I waited.

All for the hope that one day, that small crack would finally grow into an irreparable fracture; a gaping fissure in the foundations of this rotten empire.

…

That day came sooner than I imagined.

And it all began with an earth-shattering—

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!