Deepforge (28 page)

Chapter 25

T
he Black Queen stood on the hilltop and released her captives. She then fell back into her human shape. She watched as Bruno and Grognor struggled to get to their feet. “What’s wrong, Bruno? Feeling a bit…mortal?” She laughed.

Bruno stood up and faced her. “Obsidian. You don’t belong here.”

Grognor didn’t say a word. He held his hammer tightly; ready to take the dragon down.

“Look around you, rock boy! Where do you think you are?”

Bruno was a bit confused. “Ahl-Thoor-Hees,” he said.

“No! You idiot!” She laughed. “I really thought the First One was smarter than that. Haven’t noticed the anachronisms and anomalies? This is
Antrium!
” She laughed again. “Well, it
will
be once I get done. Your future will cease, and my reality will begin!”

Bruno thought about radio brands and the technology. “This is impossible, you can’t do that!”

“Oh, but I already have! The fact that I exist, not as some pathetic princess, but as this!” She morphed back into her dragon shape. “Proves it!” The force of her roar pushed them back.

“Why have you attacked us? Just exactly what’s so special about Deepforge?” Grognor asked.

“As I’m sure Bruno’s told you already, it’s all about the mithril. Whoever controls the mithril, controls the future, just as I told Kraal. What an idiot. He couldn’t even get
that
right.”

“You’re insane!” Bruno lunged toward her.

She let go a weak blast of fire.

Bruno screamed in pain and fell as his flesh burned.

Grognor was less affected, and simply stared at her with hate. “I suppose it was you behind the EM pulse too, then?”

“Oh, don’t be such a wimp, Bruno. You’ll heal. No, Emperor, that wasn’t me. You should ask your friend, here. After all, it was
his wife
behind it. Not that it matters…Listen up, both of you. I would offer you a place in my new reality. In fact, I’ll offer you both a choice: Stay here and let my warriors tear you apart, or join me. We can rule together and form a glorious Empire to span several worlds!”

“I prefer choice number three,” Grognor said, “tear you apart!”

“What the hell are you talking about? My wife had nothing to do with any EM Pulse,” Bruno scoffed.

The Black Queen laughed. “She did. In fact, she initiated it.”

“Is this true, Bruno?” Grognor asked, incredulous.

“No, of course not. She’s insane.”

The Black Queen grinned sinisterly and said, “Mars.”
[7]

Bruno instantly remembered the story his wife had told him about the war for independence she was involved in. “That’s not possible…”

“My concubine Jennifer was there. Or ‘Jenny’ as she called herself. She took part in the war right alongside your wife. In fact, those little portals spider-webbed across space-time, opening on numerous worlds, not just your precious Earth. We were prepared for it. Our infrastructure was shielded.”

“Concubine…Wait, what?” Grognor was quite confused.

“So, what’s your answer? Will you join me, or die?” She sneered.

“You know I’ll never align with you…
Princess!
” Bruno spat it out, alluding to her former life.
[8]

“Well, I had to try. Then, enjoy your fate.” The Black Queen rose high just as the Drakmids flowed over the hill in a blanket of death. Grognor and Bruno engaged them in battle.

Two strange men stood nearby watching the battle, but nobody noticed them.

“Oh, this is very interesting, Codal. The temporal anomaly you discovered; it’s coming from that huge palace on the lake.”

“Tantoiff, there’s a portal…actually a couple of them opening up. Look!” He pointed.
[9]

Suddenly, the sky opened up. Bahamlo flew down from the bright storm and descended upon the battle.

“There you are! Finally decided to join us, you pathetic excuse for a king?” the Black Queen taunted.

“I’m not alone,” Bahamlo said, motioning to the ground.

The ground below the battle began to rumble. Cracks appeared as the ground heaved, spewing magma high into the air. The armies ran to get away from the apparent volcanic eruption.

The ground finally gave way, revealing a massive chasm. Out from the gigantic hole flew Lotanna, roaring with all her heads.

The Black Queen flew backward, roaring in anger. “No, it’s impossible!”

Lotanna flew right up to Bahamlo and hovered in the sky next to him, glaring at the black Queen. They were there
together
.

The shock caused the battle to stop, and everyone to watch. Bruno dropped the dead body of one of the Drakmids, his side sliced open, and watched the drama play out. “This is impossible!”

The dragons scrambled to figure out what to do next. Lotanna roared at the chromatics and ordered them into the chasm as Bahamlo ordered the metallics into the storm raging high in the sky.

As the dragons fled, the Black Queen roared in anger and flew toward the two Royal dragons. She impacted Bahamlo, knocking them both to the mountainside. The two massive dragons hit hard, dislodging house sized boulders in a deafening thud. Lotanna roared and expelled a plasma bolt into the Black Queen, causing her to go into convulsions and release Bahamlo. As soon as she did so, Bahamlo blasted her with a sonic blast, knocking her across the valley. The sound caused eardrums to burst, and people from both sides to run for their lives.

The three behemoths battling above their heads, the armies no longer recognized their particular factions. The ground fight was over. Lotanna flew at Obsidian and managed to grab her tail. She swung the impossibly huge dragon into the ground where she crashed into the forest fire, shattering the giant trees and crushing anyone who happened to suffer the bad luck of having been there. 

The ground heaved from her weight as she impacted, tilling up the earth and sending debris in all directions. The Black Queen Obsidian roared in anger, and expelled a massive blast of fire into the sky. Any casual observer from hundreds of miles away would have mistaken this as a volcanic eruption. People ran for their lives in all directions.

Bahamlo body slammed Obsidian as she tried to get to her feet, once again knocking her down. He then blasted her with a massive cone of frost, causing her to scream and roar even louder. She twirled around, managing to swing her barbed tail into Bahamlo’s head. He fell over, crushing trees and roaring in pain. This freed her enough that she could get to the air, just as Lotanna met her with another blast of plasma. She was ready for it this time, and evaded the attack. She retaliated with a massive globule of acid at point blank range. Lotanna roared in pain and flew at her, nearly scoring a double claw hit.

“Run for your lives!” Deccon roared at the humanoids. He then flew up to battle with the Black Queen, but Bahamlo stopped him.

“Deccon, you and Vella cannot be involved with this battle,” Bahamlo said. “Get as many people out of the path of destruction as you can, and then follow your kind into the portal to our home.” He motioned to the raging storm above their heads. “We will leave this world to the humanoids once and for all, after we eliminate the threat of the Black Queen.”

At that point, Obsidian slammed into the ground in front of Bahamlo. “How dare you come here! This is my world! Get out before I destroy both of you!” She lurched forward and hit Bahamlo, biting and tearing off scales.

Bahamlo looked at Deccon. “Go! Go now!” He then spun around and wrestled Obsidian, clawing and biting as hard as he could.

Deccon went to Vella, who was already carrying and teleporting as many people away from the battle as she could.

“We must hurry,” Deccon said. “We don’t have much time.”

Vella nodded and flew away with Deccon, several people on their backs.

Lotanna fell upon Obsidian’s back, the three massive dragons fighting with all they had. Fire, frigid cold, acid, chlorine gas, plasma, and all manner of breath weapon emitted from the three as they chaotically battled on the ground, destroying the burning forest as the storm raged and the portal to Hell spewed flames.

Obsidian finally got free and flapped her wings, fanning the flames again and rising high into the air toward the raging storm  that was the portal to the good dragon’s home plane.

“She’s heading for the portal! Stop her!” Bahalmo said as his broken and bleeding body scrambled to gain a foothold.

Lotanna chased her high into the sky, through the clouds into the heart of the storm. “You’ll never survive on the other side, Obsidian!” she roared.

“Sure I will! I’ll claim the plane and become goddess of the dragons!” Obsidian roared in sinister laughter.

Lotanna flew as fast as she could, barely gaining any speed as Obsidian got closer to the portal. Suddenly, Deccon and Vella appeared in front of her, blasting with a combination of sonic and frigid air attacks. Obsidian stopped in mid flight and looked into the eyes of her two grandparents. For a moment, her alternate life came back to her mind. Her life in Velland; her life with her brother, her loving parents, her expertise with swordplay, forging mithril… realizing the she had forgotten the last step in this reality…and her granddaughter Fayla sitting with her on her last day of life. Her beloved Itriss. Remorse filled her heart. She involuntarily reverted to human form. She fell through the clouds, tears flooding out of her eyes. “Mother…Father, please forgive me…” she cried.

Bahamlo realized what was happening as he saw cracks beginning to form in the fabric of reality itself. “Deccon and Vella, get out of there!” He finally finished healing himself, got to his feet, and took to the air.

The Deepforge army had finally gotten to the western edge of the valley. They saw the Drakmid army behind them, as frightened as the rest of them at the sight of the battle between the three massive dragons. Far to the west, the inland sea stretched out before them with the Black Queen’s city built above like an elaborate bridge. If it hadn’t been for the horror playing out in front of them, it would have been beautiful.

The ground began to quake violently as cracks formed all over. Not just in the ground, but in the very sky. Reality itself was beginning to shatter.
Everyone
panicked. Screams came from everywhere.

Lotanna saw Obsidian falling as a human and caught her in her arms. Bahamlo caught up to her and they both hovered, unsure as to what to do next.

“Reality is shattering! What do we do?” Lotanna roared.

The raging storm suddenly grew darker and increased in power, tearing up the sky. The portal to Hell began to expand, pulling in more and more ground.

“Take her to Hell, quickly!” Bahamlo roared. “Get her out of the material plane before she destroys us all!”

Obsidian woke up. She was herself again, the Black Queen. She rapidly and violently morphed into her dragon shape, even bigger, to nearly twice the size of Bahamlo and Lotanna. The quick morphing caused them to lose balance. They tumbled backwards, both crashing into the mountain tops.

Obsidian roared. “Nice try! I’ll kill you all! Antrium is born!” Her roar caused the very mountains to begin crumbling, the Stone Elementals running for their lives.

Cracks continued to spread all over the ground and the sky as the portal storm raged and the portal to Hell widened. Lotanna and Bahamlo rushed at Obsidian from two sides. They slammed her, causing her to lose balance. All three of them crashed into the ground near the portal to Hell.

“Take her back to where she belongs, Sister! Take her quickly, before it’s too late!” Bahamlo roared.

The Black Queen roared as they held her down. “Noooo!!! This wasn’t supposed to happen like this!”

“You’re going back to your own reality, Black Queen, and the dragon families will never again set talon on this world.” Lotanna revealed the mark of Bahamlo on her chest.

“The pact is sealed for all time,” Bahamlo said, revealing the mark of Lotanna on his chest.

The Black Queen roared and let loose all her breath weapons. “Noooo!!!” she roared and struggled.

Lotanna and Bahamlo nodded to each other as all the other dragons retreated through the portals.

Bahamlo turned to Grognor and roared. “You are now free of us, once and for all. Make it a good future.” He nodded and followed the metallics into the portal. It closed behind them.

“And you, my dear, are coming with me!” Lotanna roared as she fell into her portal, with the Black Queen struggling to get free. The portal closed behind them, the chasm sealed shut. The dragons were gone. The cracks were all gone, and the battle was over as quickly as it had begun. The fires finally died down as it began snowing. There was suddenly cloud cover, and the cracks had spontaneously healed. The Drakmids didn’t know what to do as they stood looking at the Deepforge army. They panicked and retreated.

Part 5: End of an Era

Chapter 26

“S
hall we follow them?” Kergnor asked.

“No, let them go. They’ll retreat across the land bridge where we’ll trap them on the other side. We’ll destroy it, and stay here.” He looked at Teelena, and she nodded in agreement as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“But, Deepforge?” Kergnor asked.

Grognor looked at his older brother and knew what he had to do. “Brother, Deepforge is yours. I’ll keep whomever will stay, here with us. We’ll set up a settlement to protect the north from any excursions or stray dragons, and make epic sport with them. You should have been Emperor, anyway.”

“As you wish, Brother.”

Alva came to them, crying. “He’s dead. Bōddy’s dead.”

“He saved my life,” Teelena said as she cried.

“He was the best of us. This world is darker with him gone,” Alva said.

The land was strangely quiet. All the battle had stopped, and the snow peacefully fell over the broken valley.

All the leaders congregated on the hill and looked out at the destruction. Nearly all the thousand year old giant trees were leveled. The peaks of the nearby mountains had been dulled by the bodies of the dragons, and rubble was everywhere. Bodies littered nearly the entire valley from one end to the other.

“We will give them the funeral rite before we do anything else,” Grognor said, also crying. He dropped his weapons and held Teelena close, mourning all the dead.

“The dragons are all gone. I can’t believe it,” Bruno said as he looked around at the grey cloud cover. “How can they all be gone?”

For several days and nights they recovered and began cleaning up the battlefield. The bodies were all then commended to the fires.

“We have lost so many,” Grognor said as they all cried. “We’ve lost friends, family. Fellow warriors. How can we possibly go on with our lives without them?” He fell to his knees, tears flooding down his cheeks and soaking his beard. “The dragons have left us, but have saved us from a foe we couldn’t have taken down on our own. The gods were there with us, in spirit. We thank them for seeing us through to the end.

“We say our final goodbyes to our loved ones, and send them to the afterlife where they will dine with the gods. Truly, they are the fortunate ones. We must stay behind and mourn their passing. They are all heroes. From this day forward, we will name this valley in their honor. This will be known as the Valley of Heroes.” He heaved in tears, barely maintaining composure.

That’s when they noticed two metallic dragons were still there, walking up to the join them.