After realizing how much the Lands Between had changed, Selinsax fell silent and continued her ascent through the clouds.
It wasn't until a long while later that she finally stopped, hovering high among the drifting mist.
From here, she could overlook almost the entire span of the Lands Between.
Far off to the northwest, she could already see the glimring waters of Liurnia of the Lakes.
Across the Inner Sea, the distant Altus Plateau was shrouded in haze, though its rough outline could still be faintly discerned.
But the cliffs along its edges—she stared at them, frowning. They didn't look natural at all.
They looked as if soone had carved them out with deliberate precision.
Selinsax gazed down at the reshaped world, her mind blank.
Just where… had she co to?
Was this even still the Lands Between?
Lucian, noticing her long silence, finally asked,
"Selinsax? What's wrong? What do you see?"
She blinked, eyes fixed on the vast Inner Sea below.
"It's not about what I see…" she murmured.
"It's about what I can't see."
Stretching out her claw, she drew a circle in the air, tracing the outline of the inland sea beneath them.
"Down there… that was all land once."
"There were small inland lakes, yes—but nothing like this. The sea was never this vast."
"Almost everything you see below used to be solid ground. And now.. it's all gone."
She turned her gaze downward, toward Caelid.
"That was once the Jagged Peak, where the drakes lived."
Then she looked north of Limgrave.
"That should've been the Cerulean Coast."
Finally, her eyes moved to the center of the Inner Sea—where all the Divine Towers stood in a great ring.
There, once upon a ti, lay the true heart of the Lands Between.
She could still rember the inscriptions carved upon the monunt that stood there:
The very center of the Lands Between.
All manners of Death wash up here, only to be suppressed.
And now, it too was gone.
The entire center of the Lands Between looked as if it had been cut out and removed.
Lucian frowned deeply.
What was going on here?
The center of the Lands Between was once a continent? He'd never heard anything like that before.
And those places Selinsax ntioned—none of them existed in the ga, nor in any record he'd ever seen.
How could such an enormous stretch of land simply vanish?
Continental drift? Plate movent? Absurd.
But if it wasn't natural, then… soone—or sothing, had taken it.
Had literally dug out a piece of the world.
That idea was far more terrifying.
Lucian didn't believe there was any power in the Lands Between capable of doing that.
When could it have happened?
Selinsax ca from an age so ancient that even the Nox civilization still existed.
Lucian, however, lived far in the future—so distant that no one even rembered there had ever been land in the middle of the sea.
It must have happened sowhere in between… another missing age in history.
He sighed. Another gap. Another broken era.
When he returned to Stormveil, he'd have to question his subordinates about this.
Though, to be fair, most of them were ancient enough to rember entire ages long forgotten.
Aside from Lancelot and Hakkan, who were about his own age, the rest of them were—
well, fossils with opinions.
Elyssa probably wouldn't know much.
Though she'd lived long, most of her ti had been spent in the mountaintops.
After slaying the Fire Giants, she'd been sealed away again.
The ones most likely to know were the Ancient King and Selyra.
Still, for the most complete understanding, he would have to ask the Crucible Knights.
They had existed the longest, and unlike others, had never fully vanished from history.
Lucian rubbed his forehead.
Just how powerful would one have to be to erase an entire continent from the Lands Between?
The thought alone was staggering.
But for now, there was no way to find the answer.
"Selinsax," he finally said, "let's descend for now. The history of this land has too many missing pages. We'll uncover the truth later."
"Understood."
With a powerful beat of her wings, Selinsax dove downward, returning to the scarlet skies of Caelid.
From above, Lucian quickly spotted the sealed gates of Sellia, Town of Sorcery.
He pointed the direction out, and Selinsax accelerated toward it in a blur of motion.
Riding on her back, Lucian couldn't help but marvel at the natural strength of the ancient dragons.
Their combat power aside, their speed alone was overwhelming.
Now that they were no longer confined underground, Selinsax could finally unleash her full might. She soared like a bolt of lightning across the crimson sky.
Along the way, several lesser drakes noticed them.
But the mont they saw Selinsax's massive ancient dragon form, they scattered in terror, fleeing in all directions.
After all, generations of pain had taught them not to challenge the elder kin.
From afar, Selinsax's eyes caught sight of the imnse, pale dragon lying in the Dragonbarrow plains.
That colossal body, slumbering motionless upon the land, was as vast as a mountain.
"Mother of Dragons, Greyoll… Even after all these ages, she hasn't changed much," Selinsax murmured.
Lucian's mind drifted to a question.
"Wait, you once said Bayle and Greyoll were mates, right? Then logically, she should've been targeted for cleansing too."
"But she seems… untouched."
Selinsax nodded.
"Yes. Normally, that would've been the case. But Greyoll's situation was rather complicated."
"She never openly supported Bayle during that war. Instead, she led a small group of descendants and remained neutral. Whether it was a survival tactic or genuine apathy, no one really knows."
"In the aftermath, her relationship with the ancient dragons wasn't completely broken."
"She even acknowledged the Dragon Communion Rituals. After that, she continued to act as the leader of the lesser drakes, and was allowed to remain in the Lands Between."
Selinsax paused, then added,
"Although drakes share many habits with ancient dragons, they're scattered across the land, rarely united. But having Greyoll as their elder made communication easier."
"If you ever need to contact the drake race, Master, seek her out. But it would be best to bring along, my presence would ensure no misunderstanding before the eting."
Lucian nodded slightly. He hadn't yet decided what to do with the drakes, so he let the topic drop.
In the brief ti they talked, Selinsax had already crossed over the Dragonbarrow and the northeastern reaches of Caelid.
Soon, they were flying over Sellia.
But the town below was eerily silent, no sign of life.
Lucian frowned. That wasn't normal.
Had sothing happened while he was away?
As they descended, several spells suddenly shot toward them from the ground.
Lucian raised his hand, summoning a storm barrier that deflected the incoming magic.
So bolts broke through and struck Selinsax, but she didn't even flinch.
Her stone-like scales shattered the spells harmlessly.
Ancient dragon scales could shrug off the attacks of lesser beings—
weak sorcery had no right to harm them.
No right at all.
Lucian guessed that the townsfolk had mistaken Selinsax for a threat.
He called out loudly,
"Cease fire!"
The sorcerers below froze at the sound of his voice. Spotting him upon the dragon's back, they imdiately halted their spells.
Lucian leapt down from Selinsax' back.
Monts later, a Nightfolk girl ca running out from the gates of Sellia—Stella.
Clutching a staff far too large for her, she bowed deeply.
"Lord Lucian! Forgive us! We didn't realize it was you!"
Lucian waved a hand dismissively.
A simple misunderstanding.
He'd told them to wait for his return and be ready to depart with their mounts—but he hadn't said how he'd return.
Who would've guessed he'd co back riding an ancient dragon?
Thankfully, Selinsax wasn't hurt in the slightest.
"So," Lucian asked, "what was going on just now? From above, I saw no one in town."
Stella looked flustered.
"We spotted the dragon from afar. A true ancient dragon, so everyone hid right away."
"At first, we thought it was just passing through. But when it started circling overhead and then descended toward the town, we feared it ant to destroy Sellia."
"So we panicked… and launched a counterattack."
Lucian nodded slowly, suppressing a sigh.
At least their fear had been justified.
"It's fine, I understand" Lucian said calmly.
"How's Sellia been lately? If there's nothing left that needs doing here, we'll prepare to move out soon."
Stella nodded. "Everyone in Sellia is ready. We can depart at any ti."
But then she frowned slightly, hesitating before continuing.
"However… there's been so strange activity around Caelid recently."
Lucian raised an eyebrow. "Strange activity?"
"Yes. For so unknown reason, all the creatures affected by the Scarlet Rot have beco increasingly violent. They used to harass the town occasionally, but lately, their attacks have been much more frequent, especially the ones crawling out from the Swamp of Aeonia."
"Since Sellia lies so close to the Swamp of Aeonia, these creatures have caused us a lot of trouble. And aside from those corrupted beasts, the Rot Servants who occupied the Sellia Crystal Tunnel have also started making trouble again."
"We managed to repel them using the town's defenses, but I'm afraid they'll be back soon."
Lucian fell silent for a mont, thinking.
He had nearly forgotten, the Sellia Crystal Tunnel hadn't been reclaid yet.
Sellia was his territory. That ant the tunnel, and everything in it belonged to him as well.
The tunnel produced Smithing Stones of good quality, an invaluable resource for any army.
Strategically, there was no way Lucian would leave it in enemy hands.
It was also the perfect opportunity to let the Drakeblood Knights test their new mounts—and practice their coordination against the Rotspawn.
Having made up his mind, Lucian turned to Stella.
"Alright. We'll delay departure until we've retaken the entire area."
"Awaken the creatures the Nox Dynasty left behind. My army is already near Caelid's borders."
Stella nodded and brought a whistle to her lips.
At the sharp sound, several windows across Sellia burst open, and from them poured a tide of silver-scaled lizards, sleek and gleaming.
One after another, the large creatures erged and gathered before Lucian.
These were artificial beasts, creations of the ancient Nox civilization—side products of their attempts to create Dragonkin soldiers.
Each had the head of a draconic creature, long limbs and tails, but only a pair of skeletal, fleshless wings. Their smooth tallic hides shimred silver under the crimson light of Caelid.
They looked less like dragons and more like massive, uncanny lizards.
Ever since Lucian had seen the Crystal Lizards in the Nox ruins beneath Nokron, he'd suspected these were modeled after them—twisted imitations born of experintation.
They reminded him of the bizarre dragon beasts from Dungeons & Dragons—hybrids of myth and machine.
He nodded slightly to himself. "...Dragonbeasts. That'll do for a na."
Stella blinked, catching the na he'd just coined, then explained,
"We had to awaken a large number of these constructs for defense. The Rotspawn were weak individually, but there were so many of them."
Lucian studied the Dragonbeasts closely.
They were massive—smaller than the Crystal Lizards he'd seen, but still towering over most beasts. In the Lands Between, few creatures surpassed them in size.
That alone gave them trendous strength. Among the surviving beasts of the world, only the Runebears might surpass them.
In terms of power, they were roughly on par with the Monstrous Dogs and Monstrous Crows. Perfect for holding the line against Rotspawn and corrupted beasts.
Lucian was pleased.
They might lack endurance, but their burst speed easily outclassed ordinary warhorses.
More importantly, their climbing ability was superb—they could scale cliffs and stone surfaces with ease.
That gave his army sothing it had never possessed before: vertical mobility.
Standing nearby, Selinsax—now in human form, watched the creatures with a faint grimace.
She'd helped the Nox Dynasty back in her day, but she still couldn't figure out why their "finished products" always turned out so... peculiar.
They weren't dragons, they weren't drakes—just strange lizards with dragon heads.
The more she looked at them, the stranger they seed.
Lucian turned back to Stella. "How many of these Dragonbeasts do you have?"
"Dragonbeasts?" she repeated, realizing that was the na he'd chosen.
In truth, she would've called them Dragon Lizards, but since her lord had spoken, there was no point arguing over terminology.
"Roughly eight hundred were awakened," she said after a brief calculation.
"After recent battles, about six hundred remain. Another hundred or two still slumber beneath Sellia."
"If needed, we can also manufacture more."
Lucian nodded. "No need. The ones you've already awakened will suffice."
"Have them follow us. We're heading out to et my soldiers."
He mounted one of the Dragonbeasts, then glanced at Selinsax.
"What about you? Want to ride one, or will you fly?"
Selinsax eyed the beasts' awkward forms and shook her head imdiately.
"No, I'll fly. From above, I can scout ahead and guide you more easily."
"Good idea," Lucian replied. "Then I'll leave navigation to you."
Stella gave orders to the sorcerers remaining in Sellia to maintain defenses against the Rot creatures. Then she too mounted a Dragonbeast.
Once Selinsax soared into the air, Stella blew her whistle again, commanding the herd to move out.
Selinsax slowed her flight, circling gently above them. The Dragonbeasts were far slower than her natural pace.
Below, Lucian rode beside Stella, glancing at her curiously.
"So, how exactly do you control these things?"
Stella thought for a mont before answering carefully.
"They can't understand speech, they aren't truly sentient. They're more like tools than living beings."
"To command them, we use a series of coded sound signals. Each command is made up of specific long and short tones, each representing a different action."
Lucian nodded slowly. "Like Morse code, then."
"...Morse code? I don't know what that is but..." she continued. "For example, when I summoned all of them earlier, that was a two-part signal—the first selected the command's scope, and the second issued the action."
"The scope can be 'all units,' specific groups, or even individual beasts. The action commands cover movent, direction, attack, and so on."
Lucian was impressed. Simple, efficient, and error-proof—perfect for creatures born of design rather than instinct.
That also ant his knights wouldn't need months of training to bond with their mounts. Just morize the signals, and they could command them flawlessly.
Stella looked at him seriously. "Once we regroup with your army, I'll teach you all the command codes."
Lucian waved his hand. "No need. I've already got Torrent on land and Selinsax in the air. Let my legion commander learn them instead."
"Understood," Stella said. "Once we arrive, I'll pass the full control codes to him. He can train the others afterward."
Their convoy pressed on, scaling rocky slopes and ridges. Occasionally, bolts of red lightning struck ahead—Selinsax clearing out the Rotspawn before they even reached them.
After several hours of travel, the group finally reached the Siofra River Lift—the entrance to the underground realm.
The journey had been long. Riding Selinsax had taken re minutes, but returning with hundreds of Dragonbeasts had consud nearly half a day.
Still, they'd made it in one piece.
Lucian activated the massive lift, guiding the first hundred Dragonbeasts onto the platform.
One by one, they descended into the depths.
Before long, the entire herd had entered the underground world.
Stella looked up in awe at the false night sky above—the shimring stars and glowing stone spires of Siofra.
"So this… is where we ca from?" she whispered.
The sky was beautiful—an illusion, yet still enough to stir her heart.
This was the birthplace of their kind… their lost holand.
Regaining her composure, she urged the Dragonbeasts forward under Selinsax' direction.
Soon, the Drakeblood Knights' encampnt ca into view.
They halted in formation just outside, their heavy steps echoing through the cavern.
The commotion drew the attention of the knights inside.
One by one, crimson-armored figures erged from their tents, watching the procession.
They'd been told new mounts were coming—but none of them had imagined they'd look like this.
A hundred silver dragon-lizards gleaming under the eternal stars of the underground night.
And Lucian, at their head.
User Comments
0 comments from readers