Runt of the Litter - Tales from Alirast

"Still think they will be fine?" Dawn said with an edge to her voice. Trying to hide the evident worry as she sat on the edge of the universe and stared at Alirast.

"As I said. I have absolute faith in my wife and my followers. One uppity lizard isn't going to shake that."

"Uppity lizard? Really? Exardescere is poised to become a Greater Deity the second it ascends. It's the oldest living dragon on Alirast. Are you seriously telling me you aren't worried?"

Kain laughed. Some days she absolutely hated him. This universe was her, despite that, Kain always seemed to have a smug confidence in everything he did. Even the All-Father was sometimes baffled by him. There had been a serious discussion before his rise to power in just snuffing him out of existence. The All-Father thought that one of the other creators had perhaps gotten to Kain.

But here the fool sat with a smile on his face as he watched the Infernal Void descend on his wife and the little rag-tag group.

Dawn huffed and turned back to watch, hoping that Trillia and Layla would survive. The two of them were some of the most devout little orcs she had ever seen, and Dawn had taken a great deal of enjoyment in watching them grow.

-=====-

"M'Lord. I have the reports." The drakken kneeled the moment it had stepped into the room, its voice barely a whisper. Anytime it stepped into its lord's pocket dimension, set its scales crawling.

"The Beast Scar?"

"Yes, M'Lord. As you foretold. The Valkyrie and a group of lessers are approaching the Eternal General's prison. Reports say they do not know fully what resides there..." The drakken wanted to say more but thought better of it.

"But the Grand One's son has already freed one of Alirast's shards. I must say, I look forward to ascending and testing my wits against the Darktone clan. To think a boy of less than two decades of age has freed Edax."

The drakken stayed silent on its knees. It had no love for the young gods, in fact, it hated them. They were disrupting the Master's plans, and it was no doubt the Darktone clan's fault that no ascensions were going to happen.

"I think I'll go and pay the Valkyrie a visit. See if time and children have dulled her glorious edges."

The drakken's head snapped up to look at his master's back. Wings that could cover a city spread wide, absorbing mana from the void between worlds. Exardescere's pocket realm sat on the edge of Alirast's protective bubble. Allowing the endless mana in the void to seep into his resting spot. His lord had to fend off would-be attackers, even some eldritch shards over the millenniums that he had been soaking up the void and evolving.

"Don't act so shocked, my child. After all, The Red Lady is always fair. She will not forcefully ascend me either. I trust that I can leave the other affairs to you and your peers?"

The thing's heart sank. It immediately dropped its head and averted its gaze. "Forgive my forwardness, M'Lord. Yes, we will ensure that everything runs perfectly."

The creature watched as the endless void it was staring into turned back into rough granite. It breathed a sigh of relief as it stood from its knees.

"What word from his lordship?" One of its peers spoke up with a worried edge to their voice.

"He goes on the hunt himself. The other plans for the lesser dragon families are left to our expertise. We mustn't fail."

The room went so silent that the drakken felt as if it could hear the beating of its own heart.

"He goes to hunt the Valkyrie alone?"

A simple nod was the only response needed.

-=====-

"[Greater Heal]!" Trillia's voice was hoarse. Both hands laid on Honos' head. The dragon was durable, but she had taken an incredible amount of damage. Huge chunks of flesh and scales were missing, and one of her wings was tattered.

Trillia wasn't sure how much of the fight she had missed, but it was a wonder that Stas and Alliyah seemed mostly unharmed.

The dragon slowly stomped away from the wounded, circling Alliyah. Every step shook the ground and crushed trees. As its tail swished behind it, hundreds of feet of land was torn apart and set ablaze. "It's been some time, Valkyrie. I was shocked that you didn't hunt me down when the Red Lady made her proclamation!"

"Not speaking in the draconic tongue? Are you enjoying the audience, you arrogant bastard?"

Trillia flinched at the deep rumble of the creature's laughter. "Perhaps I am Valkyrie. Perhaps I am. Shall we send them away? So that you and I can go all out?"

Honos took a deep breath as Trillia dumped more mana into healing the dragon's wounds.

"You'd really let them all leave? I've never known you to know the meaning of mercy."

"Mercy? No...it is not mercy, Valkyrie. It is understanding. They will flee, as all mortals do in sight of my power. You have grown weak and complacent without your patron. I will win the fight. I will drag your tattered remains across the entire realm so that all upon Alirast know that I cannot be contested. I will watch as the horror in your little pets fills them. Knowing that they left you to that fate."

The creature stopped moving.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Alliyah hadn't been idle, slowly circling as well to keep the wounded out of the dragon's path if it unleashed its breath weapon again. "Ahhh...yes, the tired old trope of your kind. What is this grandstanding Exardescere? You held back with your initial strike. You haven't killed them. What are you really after?"

That was holding back?! Trillia paused in her healing to glance over at the two of them. Even through the many layers of protection they had set up, half of Trillia's body was covered in burns.

As if remembering he had attacked them, the dragon's head snapped to the side, and another beam of oblivion threatened to engulf Trillia and Honos. This time, she had closed her eyes in time.

Opening them, she saw Stas kneeling on the ground, several limbs slowly regrowing. Alliyah stood in front of them with the shield held up in front of her.

The dragon continued circling them, destroying the surrounding forest and landscape in the process. As if everything except his conversation with Alliyah was an afterthought.

"You're snooping in places you shouldn't be. So is your noble son."

His tone caught Trillia off-guard. That hadn't sounded sarcastic.

"Explain...please."

"Ahhh. The caring mother. The shards that Lord Arlyss seems determined to release. It's a problem. I came in person so that you could see just how seriously I will be forced to take this."

Lotan? Then, whoever was trapped in the Beast Scar had to be equally as powerful. Trillia reached her mind out to Stas, who snapped up the connection immediately.

"Lord Stas...I have a request. It's a stupid one."

"I'm willing to hear you out, Trillia. Alliyah will survive this encounter...none of us will if this beast gets serious."

"Take me to the entrance of that dungeon. You move quickly."

"Are you trying to piss it off?"

The dragon looked over at Trillia. As she stared up at it, its eyes seemed to go on forever, an endless swarm of suns. "You'd speak of releasing the creature? With me right here?" Exardescere seemed genuinely impressed at her audacity.

Stas and Trillia both froze. "Yes. Your telepathy isn't secure to a creature that mostly exists in the Aether. Truly, Valkyrie. This is the caliber of allies you have? Perhaps I should have sent my children to wipe out your empire a century ago."

"We both know you would never dream of standing before me were it not for Kain's inability to be here. What do you think is going to happen, even if you do beat me? What do you think will happen when you ascend?"

"I will take the place of my patron, the one your husband killed in his fury to protect you. Do you know what it's like to be pact-bond to a deity who is ripped apart? Shredded down to its last point of mana? It is not pleasant, Valkyrie."

The two continued to circle one another, Alliyah waiting to respond to another random attack. Once more, Exardescere remembered that it should keep the dangerous Queen on her toes.

Trillia fell back as Alliyah appeared before her in a flash of light. The shield held up as Exardescere opened its maw and unleashed that infernal beam toward her and Honos.

The shield's maw opened wide and seemed to be actively devouring the energy from the attack.

As the heat in the area died down, Alliyah stood there with shaky arms, drawing ragged breaths.

"Can you really keep them alive for much longer, Valkryie?" Trillia had begun to wonder the same thing. She saw Layla slowly crawling over towards them. Stas's limbs had mostly filled back in, and his wounds were closing, but the Queen seemed to be getting worn down absorbing so much energy.

"Let's make a deal. You let my protege go with the goblin. Only she can enter. I have no doubt you can see every single detail of her status. If she succeeds in freeing this creature you're worried about and isn't destroyed in the process, you and I have this duel in fifty years."

Exardescere turned his head from Trillia to Alliyah. "If she fails?"

"I will stand down for thirty days. I will only rise to the defense of the other Great Generals and my children."

That gave the dragon pause. It turned its gaze to Trillia once more. Slowly, its head descended. She was a few feet from the creature's mouth and had never felt smaller than she did in this exact second. But Alliyah wasn't moving to intercept. Was there some other tell that Trillia didn't understand?

"You'd put so much trust in her? Truly?"

"I have absolute faith in Trillia and in my children."

As the dragon snickered, Trillia felt the temperature swell in the area, irritating her burned flesh. As the creature pulled away, the pain stopped. "I have a proposal. She can walk there with her surviving beast. We will give her two days. If she has not returned, I kill every other creature here. Then you and I fight to the death."

"Done."

"Why?" The word tumbled out of Trillia's mouth before she could stop it. Both Exardecsere and Alliyah turned to look at her. Taking a deep breath, she pressed forward. "You don't want this thing to be freed. So much so that you showed up yourself. Why even risk me succeeding?"

"Were you any other creature, I'd call you dull." The dragon said in a low tone, that rumbled the dirt around him. "But you are young and you are tied to a god of knowledge. So you are not dull...just curious."

"It is a game, child. The Queen is trying to create fewer targets for me to aim for. She can send her beast of a dragon away now that you've healed it. You are more important to her than the other orc is. She bargained you and the goblin, knowing that I'd only let one of you go."

"You see, she claims to have faith in you. I do not. I don't think she does. But with you and your pet gone, she can send the dragon off, and the Butcher of Alirast can scoop up his little apprentice and flee. Leaving the Valkyrie and I to fight. She has no intention of keeping her word to me. She belongs to the lands of chaos, just as you and your mother do. Do not let her somewhat celestial appearance deceive you. She is an agent of chaos, not order. Now go, before you ruin our game with your curiousity."

Alliyah floated down to the ground and walked over to Trillia. "It's all up to you, little one. May the winds of fate be ever at your back." The giant winged warrior reached down and touched Trillia's forehead. Her wounds vanished.

"She has no armor." Layla managed a squeak.

"She doesn't need it, little Cleric." Exardescere sneered as he stood, staring at Trillia. "After all...she has the faith of the Valkyrie."

Why? What were the gods playing at? What were Kain and Dawn playing at? Why was it being left to her?

-=====-

"Just how much of your power are you flexing here, Kain?" Dawn looked over angrily at the axle.

"Would you believe none?" Had it not been for the confusion on Kain's own face, she wouldn't have believed him.

"What? What possible purpose would the Infernal Void have to spare any of them? If your boons could reach Alliyah, I have no doubt she'd stand on even footing, but without them? Exardescere is not some weak dragon lord who has lofty ambitions. He is poised to ascend and immediately step into the role of a Greater Deity, at the very least. This is not how a creature that old and that calculating would operate!"

Kain shrugged. "We promised not to peer into their minds. I have no intention of breaking that promise. It hasn't lashed out at my children or other followers, even after I expected it to do so. Especially after putting down the dragon that attacked Alliyah and I that caused my punishment."

Dawn grumbled at his words. She was the oldest thing in the Universe, seeing as she was the Universe. But there were still games that mortals played that she simply couldn't comprehend the reasoning behind them. Normally, she'd just take a little peek into their minds and unravel the puzzle immediately. But they had made a promise not to use their powers from afar and instead simply observe.

After all, half a century was a short time for the two of them.

The universe core turned her head back to stare at the scene, even more confusion bubbling up inside as Trillia took off running in the direction she had been pointed at. The giant wolf Dire ran alongside her with its own wounds healed.