Kreydan zarathos
"You're in eastern continent, eldros", the old man announced.
"How could that be? I was in wrath of aegis just two moons ago", jorath said incredulously.
Kreydan Said nothing. He was observing this king who apparently was also son of kaisran. Kreydan had heard great tales of king kaisran and his sons, the songs here in eldros, sang of their bravery and courage.
Sons of kaisran... They also fought in battle of liberation ...
"Were you there?", kreydan asked, finally breaking his silence. "In battle of liberation?"
"Of course...Every king and prince from all five continents stood there that day. The battle was vast...kings at each other's throats, thrones colliding, old alliances rotting in the open. Even the other races revealed their hidden agendas, their secret hatreds finally blooming into war", Jorath said without blinking. "Many died. Not several...many. Too many to count.
Some fell beneath my banners. Some beneath Jemriah's. And the war did not end in a day, or a week", a hint of smile but a rueful one. "It burned for fifty days.
Fifty days of blood, hatred, and ruin".
The wispy old man raised his eyebrows. "Heard that khorin tribe perished in that battle. King amren's dragon—"
"They were a nuisance in our path. Nothing more. Grothan cut down every last one of those dragons and cleared the way for us", jorath interrupted. "Me and my brothers killed every single of those swines you call khorin...My father then sliced king amren's head and stood on the towers of capital, held his head up and declared himself king of all five continents. Declared aegis reach as a capital too. I still remember that day. Forever smeared in my brain until the day I die".
Kreydan snorted. "You are wrong about one thing...king of red frost".
"What's that?"
"Bone dragon? Shadow dragon? Ghost dragon? Many more of Amren's dragons which I am sure you have heard of them. But you know what happened after they were killed? They still haunt seas, every five of them. Ship wrecks you hear often is because of them".
Jorath laughed. "Those are mere rumours, jest all you could but king amren's dragons died that day. All of them. Only new dragons still haunt these days but not seas. they are kings of sky. I know it because I have defeated one of them. Frost dragon".
Maekan laughed. "Kings from middle continent are ever so ignorant. They have learnt nothing all these years".
Kreydan eyed jorath. "Come then. I will show not tell".
"Who...are you?", jorath asked. "I never asked".
Kreydan side glanced maekan and he nodded.
"He is demigod kreydan, son of zarathos. He is going to defeat eldros and become a god".
Jorath's mouth half opened for a jest but he decided to keep them in his throat. "I mean how? I have heard of demigods before. Their names and abilities, but I have never heard about you".
"He was blessed not long ago. Still new", maekan said.
Kreydan narrowed his eyes. "Don't worry. Soon whole sumaka will know of me".
Haldren valemount
After the disaster with the Valkyras, those winged fiends who had descended without warning, Haldren and Sovena spent the entire day clearing the deck. Body after body was dragged and cast into the water, the sea swallowing them in dull, soundless splashes. It was a task Haldren had never imagined he would perform. Not this. Not ever.
This was the first time they had attacked. Even before his father and brothers had sailed these waters, the Valkyras had never struck. Never hunted ships. Never slaughtered knights.
So why now?
What gnawed at him most was the silence that followed.
There was no one left.
No knights. No captains. No banners. No voices. Only him. And Sovena.
Every other soul aboard the ship had been butchered. And then there were the islands.
To his left, scattered across the dark water, rose several small islands, jagged, black shapes against the horizon. Ancient islands watching haldren and his ship... Aegis of the sea.
Only Aegis knew what dwelled there. Only Aegis knew what kind of things slept in their stone and shadow.
What creature would come next?
What hunger would rise from those shores?
Fear coiled in Haldren's chest. Because the oath of Aegis could only take a man so far.
And beyond that oath… there was only blood, sea, and the mercy of monsters.
"It's finally done", haldren said. Throwing last of the body in a splash.
"Why did they attack?", sovena asked.
"A question every family of those knights who died will ask", haldren said. "A question that even I want answered".
Sovena looked sad. Of course she was.
"What I regret more is that", haldren turned. Facing her. "I was busy in pleasures while these bastards attacked".
Sovena smiled. "I didn't knew you were so caring towards your knights".
"I never cared for them!", haldren snapped. "They were under my banners. I have to answer my father what happened to them? Besides other attack could come, I had a need for them. Turns out they were useless after all".
Sovena sighed. "What now?"
"We... Travel where we originally planned".
"How much time? Before we reach Aravan island?"
"Ten days. More or less. We have to keep sailing west, until we reach the end of West".
"What if—", as soon as sovena said those words, she realized she saw something in water.
Haldren turned. The water was moving.
Not with waves. Not with wind. Not with tide.
Something was displacing the sea itself.
A violent splashing tore through the surface, as if the ocean were trying to vomit something back into the world. Foam exploded upward. Black water surged in broken arcs. The surface churned like boiling pitch.
"Caref—"
The sea split open like a wound. Not with sound alone, but with presence. the kind that bends the world around it. Fire bled across the sky, painting the storm in gold and ash, and from that burning veil it rose.
The Bone Dragon.
Not born, unearthed. Not living, remembering.
Its body was a cathedral of death: ancient ivory ribs layered with jagged spines, a spine like a mountain ridge, wings stretched wide like torn banners of a fallen god. No flesh clung to it, only the architecture of extinction, a skeleton shaped by ages, by wars, by oceans, by forgotten empires.
Its skull turned toward the ship.
Hollow eyes. Endless hunger. Endless memory. The storm itself recoiled.
Below, the ship fought the sea like a dying animal. Its sails burned gold in the firelight, its mast bent, its hull groaned as waves rose like walls of glass and iron. Haldren screamed prayers into the wind to aegis that did not answer, to new gods that had already abandoned.
The dragon opened its jaws. Not in rage.
Not in fury. But in judgment.
Wind howled through its ribcage like a choir of the dead. Fire and sea met beneath its shadow, and the ocean boiled where its presence touched the world.
This was not a beast. This was a relic of war.
Battle of liberation. A weapon left behind by king amren.
The dragon descended. Its wings tore the sky. Its shadow drowned the sea. Its roar split the storm itself.
And in that moment, the ship was no longer a vessel... no longer a home...no longer a hope. It was an offering. A name added to an ancient ledger. A memory for the deep.
A whisper for legends.
Because some creatures do not hunt.
They collect. And the Bone Dragon had come to claim what the sea had marked.
The Bone Dragon struck. Its colossal jaws slammed into the ship with the force of a falling mountain. Wood did not break, it exploded. The hull split like wet parchment, the mast shattered, and the world became fire, splinters, and screaming wind.
The ship ceased to exist.
Haldren felt the impact before he saw it... a thunderous concussion that tore the air from his chest and the deck from beneath his feet. The world tilted, shattered, vanished.
And he was falling.
Water swallowed him whole. Cold. Violent.
Endless.
He kicked instinctively, arms flailing against crushing pressure. The sea closed around his body like iron, filling his ears, his mouth, his nose. Salt burned his throat. His lungs screamed. Above him, the surface became a distant, broken mirror of fire and shadow.
He tried to rise. But the water was heavier than his Armour.
Each movement slowed. Each breath failed.
Each thought blurred.
The abyss opened beneath him...dark, infinite, silent.
He sank. Not fast. Not violently. But inevitably. The world dimmed. The noise faded.The pressure grew. His limbs weakened. His vision tunneled. His body forgot the sky. Haldren stopped fighting.
His eyes closed. And the sea claimed him.
World of sumaka through eyes of king amren (ten years ago)—
I was defeated in battle of liberation ten years ago. It was my mistake to charge blindly. Forty thousand knights was all I could muster. I was foolish to think that my dragons will win this war for me. I decided to ally with khorin tribe to make sure I will win this war. Damn that grothan! who killed every single one of my dragons. They will return. They will haunt them. They will mark sons of kaisran and kill them. Old God rhayson has assured me of that. Even kresper and kresper never lies. I may have died but my dragons will not.