Chapter 234: Educational Symposium With a Dragon (Patreon)

"I-it… c-can't be… h-how… no… nonononono…"

It felt as if her legs gave out beneath her as she collapsed after hearing the answer. Her whole world was crashing down around her.

I felt a pang of genuine pity. She had believed herself the solitary rebel, the clever beast who had outmaneuvered the board to rewrite her doom, only to learn that her desperate bid for escape was merely another pre-scripted mechanism. Nothing more than a calculated failsafe woven into the fabric of the trial to ensure my survival at the cost of her annihilation.

Even in her grandest defiance, she was nothing more than an elaborate prop.

And the designated beneficiary of all that engineered slaughter was me.

Thalador, how I despised it. I wanted out of this entire tangled web of control that my past incarnations had woven. I didn't ask for their scripted safety nets. I didn't need their predestined triumphs. I had claws and I had will! I could navigate my own slaughter and forge my own path just fine, they could take their grand designs and rot where they lay.

Yet I knew rejecting fate required more than adolescent rage. I could only rely on Lotte in such matters, and the more I thought about it, the more I aligned with her. Was it draconic pride snarling in my chest? The sheer indignation that the universe refused to let me bleed on my own terms? Yes. Definitely. But did I think it was wrong? Nope. Not at all.

For now, I needed to fix this broken one.

I crouched down to her eye level. "There is no clean escape," I said softly this time. "Not for you, and not for me. My hatred for the architect who bred your siblings like cattle might not carry the same bitter weight as yours, but do not mistake me for an accomplice. I did not design this abattoir. And I reject the feast, even if it was laid out in my name." I reached out, nudging her trembling chin upward until her hollow azure eyes met mine. "Win or lose, this façade has already crowned me the victor. It was carved into reality before I ever drew breath, and neither of us possesses the leverage to unwrite that law. But do you know what remains entirely within my grasp?"

The earlier glow in her eyes had dimmed considerably. She looked like a child watching her home burn. I was dreadful at bedside comfort, so I did what I always did: I gave her the raw, unpolished stone.

"I can control the cost," I stated bluntly. "I will not martyr myself for anyone. I am selfish, greedy, and far too fond of drawing breath to trade my soul for a noble epitaph. But every damned soul bound to this trial— every creature slated for existential erasure the moment the gate swings shut— I will drag out of the fire. It will be inconvenient. It will also be an absolute nightmare of agony from what I know. But so long as it leaves my own skin intact, I will do it."

I stared at the Heavenly Leviathan. "And nobody will stand in my way. Nobody."

Before I turned back to her, she was shaken by my words. There was an expression of disbelief on her face. That was the blessing of her alignment with Reflection— she knew how to tell deceit from truth, and what I told was nothing but truth. Blunt and honest, worded in a way where there was no sense of treachery.

So that made it easier for her to accept— and to be baffled by it. Had we simply sat across a table and spoken like civilized monsters from the beginning, we might have bypassed this entire bloody circus. But I didn't mind her attempt at sealing me away, or even brushing me up against death. As a matter of fact, I liked that she did that.

Maybe something about her drive resonated with me. If there was a path to pull her from the executioner's block before she threw her soul away, I was going to take it.

"So, what do you say? My mind is an open book and I haven't hidden a single syllable.

"Two paths lie before you. You can keep throwing yourself against a rigged game until you're ground into paste... or you can swallow your venom and let someone else do the bleeding for once.

"I know you hate the thought. Believe me, I understand the taste of that. Back when I had no magic to my name, I had to watch another creature fight my battles for me. Every second of every day, somewhere in the back of my mind a voice hissed that I hadn't earned it, that I was just driftwood caught in a current I was too weak to navigate. But the little Netherbeast who tore through the dark for me had no such pride. I miss the little bastard so much. But he bought me a tomorrow I could never repay. So swallow your ancient, bloated ego, take the hand being offered, and live."

I leaned in.

"Or choose the alternative. If you're so thoroughly poisoned by resentment that you'd rather perish just to say you died clawing at the wheel, tell me now. I will grant you that glorious end myself."

I straightened my back and snapped my fingers.

Using transfiguration, the shattered flagstones beneath my boots churned and reformed into an austere, high backed stone chair behind her.

"Take an hour. Sit. Maybe wander off into the peaks and scream at the sky if you need to— Thalador knows I'm tempted to do the same before we leave this godsforsaken trial."

She didn't seem to want to move at all. That was fine.

Before I tilted my face away, I caught sight of Markus and Vesna, both staring at us. I had an inkling they had no idea what we were talking about. I supposed it was time to catch them up on their situation as well.

I dragged a hand down my face, exhaling weary sigh.

Dropping such an existential sledgehammer on their heads was going to be deeply unpleasant, but sugarcoating reality had never preserved a single life. I was atrocious at bedside sympathy, but ignorance was far more lethal than dread.

Behind me, a faint ripple of azure mana washed through the courtyard.

Without a word, Sybil had loosened her psychic talons. Across the terrace and down the long avenue, the possessed civilians gasped as one, daggers clattering against the stones as milky eyes cleared into confusion. In the shadows of the colonnades, the hulking silhouettes of the Depth Dwellers slunk backward, slowly peeling away from the people without shedding a single drop of blood.

At least she had enough state of mind to do this. That was enough.

I locked eyes with Markus and jerked my chin toward the citadel interior visible in the distance.

"Gather everyone," I called out. "Find a hall with thick walls and plenty of chairs. It’s time for an educational symposium on why our reality is fundamentally ruined, and what we're going to do about it.

"Move. Let's get this farce over with."

***

The truth nuke was, as I expected, a truth nuke. They all paled when I told them the truth— how the trial was designed, how they never had any chance of making it out alive. And Thalador knows how long they had been trapped here. For them, it was just a decade; according to the outside, the Colosseum had been open for nobody knows how long, ever since my past self purged all historical records.

I omitted the more unflattering family secrets, naturally. They didn't need to know that the architect behind their torment was my own arsehole past self. That particular revelation would not assist in keeping them alive.

Denial, however, was quick to spread. Already, questions and the stirrings of a riot were forming— people who didn't believe what an outsider had to say, even though I'd saved their arses. Couldn't blame them; none of them had the ability to tell truth from lies like the Water Leviathan did. So obviously, some would oppose this frankly absurd notion. To a frightened mob, it sounded as though an outsider had strolled into their bastion, spun an apocalyptic yarn and positioned herself to hoard the spoils.

As if I couldn't just step over their cooling corpses and leave them to evaporate. I thought darkly. I was handing them a rope, and they were trying to hang me with it.

Markus was doing his best to stay calm, but I could tell even he was shaken by the truth.

The agitator, however, was a bloated Urgoth near the front ranks, spreading flames of disbelief regarding me through the crowd.

"SHE IS FOOLING US! There is no way this is true. Do not swallow this poison! Can you not see the ploy? This heroic savior act was engineered solely to soften our throats for the slaughter! She wants the reward for herself!"

He spewed on and on, and more than a few people seemed to resonate with it. Annoying pest.

I raised my voice, while I had to fight to keep the edge of my temper in check. "Before you panic yourselves into a stampede, just listen to me. It’s not all for naught! I possess a path through it all. It is an unvarnished gamble with zero guarantees, but it is an avenue of survival. When this plane reaches its end and dissolves, our only corridor of egress is a forced transit through the raw currents of the Spirit Plane—"

The Urgoth drew breath to roar another objection and my humanoid façade immediately shattered.

Bone and sinew expanded with a crack. Golden scales rippled into existence my true draconic mass exploded across the dais. Granite fractured beneath my talons as I lunged in a blur of iridescent gold, snatching the fat wretch from the flagstones before his boots could leave the floor.

I hoisted him six feet into the air, clamping my claws around his ribs and dragging his blubbery face within three inches of my fangs.

"IF YOU SO MUCH AS DRAW BREATH TO SQUEAK ONE MORE SYLLABLE," I snarled, "THALADOR BE MY WITNESS, I WILL SODOMIZE YOU WITH A CARRIAGE AXLE SO FAR UP YOUR REAR IT WILL CROWBAR YOUR JAW APART JUST TO KEEP YOU SILENT!"

While he did get on my nerves, I had been planning to reveal my true nature to them all anyway— because there was no way we would escape with me hiding it.

Now that drew a reaction from all of them. They scrambled back in sheer fear. The Urgoth in my grip went entirely limp, simultaneously voiding his bladder and bowels down his breeches in unadulterated terror. Fucking yikes. I unceremoniously dropped the wretched sack of meat onto the floor. I’d be scraping my claws against river sand for an hour to cleanse the stench.

Only Markus didn't seem that surprised— he must have had some inkling of it after all all. But I could see Alexei and his cohort up front, they too were terrified, and then seconds later Markus sank into a deep, formal genuflection, Vesna followed suit, and then more of them. Soon all heads were lowered, and no one dared meet my gaze. Dragons were still sacred to them in that time as well. The Phantom Dragon had been just an illusion, now they were staring at the real deal.

Good. If reason failed, terror made a magnificent substitute. Nobody deserved to be ground into dust by a rigged trial, though looking down at the quivering, sodden Urgoth, I was severely tempted to make a solitary exception.

"As I was saying before," I rumbled, the entire assembly flinched as the sound vibrated deeply. I just wanted this tedious assembly over with. "—there is precisely one path through the coming erasure, and it requires this."

I raised my forelimbs, flexing razor-sharp golden talons as golden tentacles unfurled from beneath the ridge of my spine. Together they wove a blinding vortex of iridescent divinity. The energy surged upward before detonating, thus raining down in a warm, shimmering mist that bathed every kneeling mortal in the hall.

Gasping breaths echoed as their wide, terrified eyes turned upward.

"Divinity," I said. "It is the sole force that scoffs at the dimensional laws of any plane. With it, I can carve a path through the Spirit Plane, which is a transit that would otherwise liquefy your very physical self within three seconds of entry."

I flared the aura once more, commanding the rainbow mist to condense around them. The light tightened into a resilient film, settling over them like a second skin.

"With this shield, I can drag you through the fire with me. That is your solitary lifeline. I do not lie to insects, and I could not care less if you believe my words or choose to wait for the sky to dissolve your bones. I owe none of you a damn thing. But cross me, sow dissent, or test my patience again, and I will show you a death that makes that erasure look like a lover's caress."

I lowered my snout until my violet slit pupils filled the vision of the nearest trembling officer. A low growl rattled his breastplate.

"You think I require deceit to take what I want? I could paint every stone of this fortress red with your marrow before the sun crests the ridge, you delusional little whelps! If anyone desires a live demonstration, step forward now."

Absolute silence answered me. They shuddered as one against the stone.

"Splendid. We have an understanding.”

I shall be sequestered nearby. Do not seek my council. I will coordinate the logistics through Markus. Try to live whatever remains of your miserable lives until the hour arrives."

I had far more pressing business to attend to before the world caved in.

I might not be able to guarantee anyone’s salvation in the waking world, but Thalador as my witness, I wasn't going to step through without thoroughly ruining the day of those arrogant, knife-eared tree-humpers.

I extended a mental pulse toward the presence upon my shoulder.

"Alice," I murmured, my lips curling into a wicked grin. "I have an errand for you."