The Lord of the Seas - An Isekai Progression Fantasy [ Currently on Volume 2 ]

The arena was silent save for the sound of wings beating above. The others descended now, their vast wings folding close as they alighted upon the stone floor where Lukas stood before Rysenth. Lukas' throat was dry as he watched them arrange themselves in a crescent, Elders and dragonborn alike bowing their heads in respect.

His words had been spoken and his proclamation made. The other Lords stood by him, affirming a vision that cut against centuries of tradition. Yet those gathered did not speak against his vision.

In fact, they did not speak at all. There were no murmurs of discontent stirred among the dragonborn, no measured words of caution that rose from the Elders of whose voices Lukas had been certain would resist him most.

Instead, there was only stillness. Lukas felt his stomach tighten. Even in their most stoic moments, his people were never this quiet. When he glanced down at Rysenth, he saw that the Dragon Lord of the Flames too had noticed that something was not quite right. Lukas had opened his mouth to address the crowd that now gathered in front of him, but before words could form, something brushed against his mind.

The feeling was unmistakable, a presence that would always be familiar to Lukas.

Relief flooded him, loosening the tension in his chest as Lukas realized that it was none other than Jesse Sterling himself.

The Crown's magic could never have reached this far if Jesse still remained in Ilagron Village. The only way for Jesse to have reached out and formed a connection between their minds meant only one thing, it meant that the young dragonborn had returned to the Kingdom of Linemall.

The realization stirred both joy and sorrow within Lukas.

Because if Jesse had returned, then it also meant Velena Ilagron had been laid to rest and the final chapter of her story had come to a close. Lukas bowed his head for a fleeting moment, honoring the Countess' memory even as a fragile smile tugged at his lips. Jesse was back. Lukas did not know where the young Sterling was but he did know that soon he would have one of his most trusted by his side once more.

But the joy was fleeting.

Once the connection had fully formed, through it surged with a storm of emotions that was not Lukas' own. Anxiety pressed first—sharp, suffocating. Then desperation, like hands clawing through darkness. Anger, hot and brittle. Fear, cold enough to chill Lukas to the bone. The emotions clashed within him, disorienting and raw.

Something terrible had happened.

"Lukas," Jesse's voice thundered through the link, rushed and uneven, "you need to listen to me!"

The urgency in those words froze him more than any silence in the arena.

But before Lukas could fully turn his attention inward, motion at the edge of his vision drew him back to the real world.

His eyes found Kaela Telaryon. The dragonborn of the Earth had stepped forward, her eyes hard and her stance deliberate. Lukas' eyes widened as her foot rose and then fell with brutal precision. The impact struck Rysenth's back, forcing the Lord of the Flames to the ground with a thunderous crash that rattled the stones beneath their feet.

Dust billowed in the air as Lukas staggered forward, disbelief and fury rising in equal measure.

At that same instant, Jesse's voice cracked through the storm again, this time a shout, desperate and unyielding. "Lukas! You have to listen to me!"

The world seemed to split in two—the chaos beginning to unravel in the arena before him and the storm raging through the bond within his mind.

Lukas understood why Kaela was doing. He had always known the depth of Kaela Telaryon's grief. It had been the Dragon Lord of the Flames who had caused her daughter to be lost to the Crest, it had been because of Rysenth Ishtar that Kaela's own child had gone mad and turned into naught but a mindless beast. This was not a random outburst rather grief hardened into vengeance. To see Rysenth given a second chance at life, to see Lukas shield him from punishment, it was clear why Kaela had allowed her wrath to get the better of her.

Lukas understood her pain. But he would not allow her to continue for understanding did not mean acceptance.

He could not allow her vengeance to go further.

He opened his mouth, ready to intervene—

And then he froze.

Jesse's words stopped him cold, cutting sharper than any blade could have. "It was Valkari!"

The words struck like a hammer blow.

Lukas froze mid-step, his heart faltering in its rhythm.

Jesse's voice surged again, desperate and raw. "It was Valkari all along!"

A coldness spread through him, sharper than winter air, instinct screaming at him to move, to defend, to react, to do anything. But it was already too late. The blade pierced him before his eyes could even find it. Lukas looked down as steel emerged from his abdomen, blood already soaking through his tunic in a rush of warmth.

His mind scrambled to summon magic, to weave a spell that might save him but his power was gone, severed in an instant.

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What was happening? Why could he not summon his Divinity?

Then Lukas realized why.

Because the blade now buried in his gut was Rysenth's own and within that sword's domain, there would be no spells Lukas could cast. There was no magic that could exist in this space.

The first wave of blood sprayed as the weapon drove deeper, sending Lukas crashing to one knee. His hand clawed toward the blade in vain, but the sword slid free, leaving gaping agony in its wake. A moment later, it tore into him again—again from behind, ramming through the base of his neck and bursting through his throat.

Lukas choked on iron, his voice gone in a flood of red. And then he heard her voice.

"I'm sorry, Lukas." Valkari's voice coiled like poison in his ears, low and merciless, her apology empty.

The dragonborn's words lanced deeper than the blade as she withdrew it, letting Lukas collapse forward, his lifeblood spilling onto the stones of the arena that hung suspended above the Ancestral Lands.

Rysenth roared, a sound of pure rage that rattled the heavens, but the Dragon Lord of the Flames was helpless, Kaela's unyielding weight pinning him against the ground.

Through the haze of pain, Lukas still felt Jesse. The young dragonborn's voice tore through the connection, breaking apart with urgency. "It was Valkari who killed Varian. She poisoned Velena too, Lukas! She's not who she says she is!" Lukas tried to shake his head, to deny it, but Jesse pressed harder; his words piercing deeper than the sword ever could. "Rysenth never betrayed his kin, he never sold his sister into chains! She left Linemall by her own choice, she's been lying to us since the moment we met!"

The world swam as Lukas' vision narrowed, every breath more ragged than the last. He lifted his gaze and saw her before him—Valkari, her brother's blade dripping with blood, his blood.

Valkari Ishtar stood tall, unshaken, and above her head the Crown blazed to life. Its radiance burned brighter, fiercer, than Lukas had ever seen, far beyond the reach of any other Lord. The sheer force of its magic bent the air around her, filling the arena with suffocating power.

"Now," she declared, her eyes locking onto his fading ones, "you see me as I am."

Lukas' heart clenched. How had he missed it? How had he been so blind that he had never seen the monster who had stood at his side all this time? Perhaps Lukas had already known all along, he had just never wanted to believe it. He had wanted to believe that Valkari was trying to be better.

Valkari had somehow turned this Legacy into a weapon of its own, honing its magic till she learnt how to control the minds of others, a Legacy that was meant to protect those same people. The others all around them stood unmoving, their wills stolen by the dragonborn's blazing Crown.

But there was one who would not be bound in silence, her mind would never be controlled by the likes of Valkari Ishtar.

Erandyl Telaryon, Dragon Lord of the Earth, roared with fury. Her massive form surged forward, scales glittering with embedded stone, eyes burning with defiance. Lukas, half-collapsed on the ground, felt a faint glimmer of hope stir within him as she charged.

Erandyl would not bend. Erandyl would not yield. She had the strength to crush Valkari where she stood.

But Valkari did not flinch.

There was no fear in her gaze as Erandyl descended, ready to stomp down and put an end to Valkari's life where she stood. Instead, her colossal body halted mid-stride, frozen in place as if chains had suddenly wrapped around every limb. The arena shook as Erandyl strained, the force of her halted momentum cracking stone beneath her feet, yet the Dragon Lord of the Earth could not move an inch further.

Lukas' eyes widened in horror.

It was not Valkari's Crown that held Erandyl still. The truth revealed itself in the magic that had been present in the air all around them, magic that had created this arena and held it in the sky.

It was the Divinity of the Earth anchoring the giant Dragon Lord in place.

And his eyes drifted to them, to the Dragonborn of the Earth. To the very ones who had traveled with them to the Ancestral Lands. They stood, hands raised, strength unified. Their spells braided together with flawless precision, their magic binding their own Lord where she stood. Valkari was not using her Crown to control their minds.

They were doing this of their own will and leading the Dragonborn of the Earth was Kaela Telaryon herself.

Kaela's stance was resolute, her expression unreadable. This was no trance. No Crown-compelled obedience. The way the Earthborn carried themselves—the way their eyes remained sharp, their posture unwavering—spoke the truth. They were acting of their own accord.

Lukas' heart sank as he realized the grim reality.

Erandyl's very nature had become her prison. Born of stone and rock, her body was bound with the same boulders that gave her strength and made her vast in size even among other Dragon Lords of Linemall. Yet those who wielded the Divinity of the Earth could turn that strength against her, controlling the very rock that shaped her body. And now, caught within the domain of the blade that Valkari now held, her own magic was muted and her power silenced. It was a trap, one that Erandyl could never have seen coming. Not when the trap had been laid by the very people she trusted most. Not when it had been laid by her own granddaughter, Kaela herself.

And the very one behind all of it had been Valkari Ishtar, the Dragonborn of the Flames, all along.

Piece by piece, Lukas saw the truth become startlingly clear before his dimming eyes.

Valkari had orchestrated the attack on Lady Kaitlyn and Rosalia. She had twisted the minds of Malrik and the Flameborn. In doing so, Valkari had framed her brother, weaving lies so carefully that even Lukas had believed them.

Every path had been calculated, every move part of her design.

Lukas' strength failed him then.

His hands slipped against the bloody stone as his body finally gave way, falling to the ground with a sickening thud.

The tether to Jesse snapped violently, leaving only a hollow ache in its absence.

Just before it broke completely, Lukas heard Jesse's roar echo through the bond, ragged and anguished as the young dragonborn realized that his warning had simply just been a second too late.

"NO!" Jesse's cry thundered with despair but there was nothing he could do.

There was nothing any of them could do.

Lukas' vision blurred, the arena dimming to little more than shadows. He felt the warmth of his blood seeping outward, his breath faltering as the edges of the world began to collapse.

In that haze, Valkari's voice pierced through the noise and she sounded almost…sad.

"I tried, Lukas. I really did. I tried to put it behind me. But I cannot forgive them for what they have done. Linemall is in good hands now. Return to the depths from whence you came. I promise you that I will bring an end to all of humanity."

Her words lingered in his ears as darkness claimed him.

Lukas' body stilled, the last fragments of strength leaving him as everything went pitch black.