Dragon Gods Reign

[Bral kingdom]

Still laughing in joy at how successful this trip had already been, Melidra suddenly felt a blade pressing against her neck. This caused her laughter to falter abruptly and made her curse her lapse of vigilance as she felt the cold metal on her skin.

Suppressing the urge to lash out in rage at the aura user holding the axe, she could only watch as the second one positioned himself between her and the three others.

“This is how you treat your savior?” She snarled.

“Tsk, savior. You let them die in the first place so don't claim any moral high ground here.” Allan answered her.

Calculating if her undead knight could kill the aura user before his blade dealt lethal damage to her, she stayed silent to the accusation. Biding her time, she tried her best to hide her relaxation as the woman finally managed to stand up.

With the aura user she resurrected shortly behind her, the two took Allan's attention from her. Rushing to their side, he caught them stumbling with a worried expression.

“Sit down, you may not be fully healed.”

“I'm better than dead, the rest doesn't matter now.” The aura user answered with sarcasm oozing from his tone.

“Then go check on Helen.”

Nodding, the aura user made his way over to the archer lying a few meters from them. As her chest was still rising and falling in a steady rhythm, he wasn't in any hurry.

“What's with you?” Allan asked the mage.

“I'm surprisingly well, even my exhaustion is gone.” Lara replied.

“Are you sure? I heard that even the healer's guilds in the big cities can't revive perfectly.” He asked.

Hearing his worried tone and noticing the suspicious glances he gave Melidra, Lara gave him a reassuring smile.

“It's all fine. So Isaac, can you please lower your weapon?”

“Are you all blind? The entire area around her died, that either means death mage or undead!” He shouted angrily.

Feeling his blade starting to cut into her skin from the additional pressure, Melidra gritted her teeth in pain.

“Calm down, I know how you feel about these but she saved us. Or at least don't harm her, we can let her be checked in the next city.” Allan said in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

Feeling no change in the pressure he put on the blade, Melidra snarled, “Better listen to him before you regret it.”

“If I kill a filthy necromancer then there is nothing to regret.” Isaac answered her.

Hearing her instincts screaming at her when he finished his words, Melidra no longer played nice with the group.

Dodging to the left without care for the weapon digging into her right shoulder, she simultaneously ordered Lara. Instantly feeling Melidra's anger drowning all her other emotions, her mind became conflicted between following the order and her camaraderie.

But while her mind was conflicted, her body instantly chose one side to act on. Covering her left forearm in a layer of ice with sharp edges, she pressed it against Allan's throat before he could react. Her right hand had meanwhile slipped behind him, helping her focus on conjuring a fairly large ice shard that hovered dangerously above Helen.

Seeing the pointed tip threatening to fall onto her head, the aura user, Lester, backed away from her in shock. Turning around only to find Lara similarly shocked over her actions, his arm that was rushing towards his weapon hesitated. A moment later sighed defeated and slowly lifted his hands above his head.

As this exchange concluded, Melidra had already grabbed her own sword and was clashing with Isaac. Ignoring her new discovery that small strings of death energy were replacing the function of the missing muscles that he had ripped out of her right shoulder, she coated her sword in said energy.

Upon noticing this, Isaac momentarily stared at it with wide eyes before grinning vindicated. Lifting his axe to block her strike, he frowned when he noticed the iron starting to rust upon contact.

Quickly disengaging, he furrowed his browns when the expected support from his teammates didn't arrive.

“You should look behind you, you've already lost.” Melidra said with a grin.

“I won't fa-”

“Isaac, just maybe try salvaging the situation.” Allan interrupted.

Before Isaac could understand the meaning of those words, his instincts flared. And seeing that Melidra was still standing a few meters away, he made the quick decision to jump back instead of sideways.

A moment later a black beam tore through the spot her just stood, making him tense up and look towards its origin.

When his eyes fell upon the figure of Julius standing there, sword pointing forwards and still emitting black smoke, he shuddered.

Without even sparing him a second glance, the undead walked over to Melidra's side. Standing there, ready to defend her should any of them try anything, he waited for further orders from her.

“Going to stop now or do I get the energy to heal the wound you caused?” Melidra asked.

Getting the implications of her words, Isaac slowly lowered his weapons. Letting them drop to the ground, he clenched his fists in rage.

“Now free me.” Lara demanded, her previous gentle attitude gone.

“I will, but I won't trust you so we'll have to work something out beforehand.” Melidra said.

Lifting her hand and creating a small stream of death energy flowing around it, she walked towards the group. Ignoring Isaac for now, she let her fingers gently brush over Allan's arm while walking past him.

During this small contact, a part of the energy split off and gathered in a concentrated ball before rushing through the life energy in his body. Easily carving a path, it soon reached the core of his life force where the energy spread around it in a ring.

“Good job in not resisting.” Melidra commented when the process finished.

By then she had already done the same to Lester and Helen and was making her way towards Isaac. As soon as he noticed this, he backed away.

Sighing, Melidra ordered Julius to stop him. As soon as she did he moved, arriving behind Isaac in a blur of speed and grabbing him by the neck.

“Be happy for the positive impression your defense of the village gives me of you because that's the only reason why I give you this offer. So submit or die, your choice.”

“Necromancer scum, I won't ever serve your kind.” Isaac spat back.

Rolling her eyes at his defiant attitude that remained even in the face of death, she conjured a blade of pure death energy over her forearm. Pulling her arm back before swinging at his neck, her blade stopped just before reaching his skin as she heard Lara's shout.

“Please don't!” She cried out as her emotions were transmitted to Melidra through their tether.

And even though they weren't able to influence her in the slightest, it was enough to draw her interest.

“Why shouldn't I? I gave him a chance and he denied it.” She asked.

“Äh, because-” Lara stared, failing to find a good argument.

“Didn't think you'd get this far, did you? But I'm all ears, aside from sentimentality, what reasons do you have to save him?”

Waiting for a few seconds to hear Lara's answer, Melidra waited silently. Receiving no answer for seconds, she was just about to turn back to Isaac when Lara started speaking.

“Because it won't bring us up against you?” She finally offered.

Scoffing at the reply, Melidra continued on even as Lara continued barraging her with attempts to appeal to her consciousness.

“Don't waste your breath, morality is worthless. It didn't help me that treating me as a lab rat isn't right, it will not help him.” She said.

Re-conjuring the blade during the following pause as Lara digested her words, she walked closer to Isaac. But her next words made her stop a second time.

“Then if my sentimental feelings won't help him, maybe yours as fellow victims will.”

Freezing for a moment, Melidra gritted her teeth. And just as Lara already sighed in relief, she turned around and arrived before her in a sudden dash. Grabbing Lara by the throat, she stared at her with eyes flaming with rage.

“Do you even understand what I went through?” She snarled.

Struggling against her grip, Lara just shook her head weakly. Ignoring her muscle-memory-based actions of struggling against being suffocated, Melidra tightened her grip even more.

Waiting until Lara's struggle weakened as the realization that the lack of oxygen didn't affect her, Melidra let her drop to the ground. Ignoring Allan who had rushed over and caught her, she lifted her head and forced Lara to look her in the eyes.

“Then don't compare him to me. Because I guarantee, whatever happened to him will look tame when compared to what that fucker of a mage did to me. You now know how it feels to be resurrected, but I did so solely based on replicating the feeling it gave me each time. And I had more than enough chances to feel it.” She said, the flickers in her eyes causing Lara to shrink back.

Seeing her understanding her words, Melidra let go of Lara's chin and turned back to Isaac.

“Fine, then share your sob story. But one lie and Julius there will end you right on the spot, understood?”

Isaac was just about to answer her with another string of insults when he saw Lara's pleading look. Taking a moment to reconsider his decision, his will to live and her pleading together came out atop his hatred for necromancers and he recounted his story with some reluctance.

“I'm from another village belonging to the nearby city, or at least it once belonged to it. Now it is replaced by a stronghold of a necromancer and he didn't get control of the area by asking nicely. Deion is his name, maybe you know him? Met at the last evil guild meeting or whatever you bunch hold to share which cities and towns you destroyed.”

Bothered by his condescending tone, Melidra interrupted him.

“Another rule, don't lump me in with idiots like that. Or undead for that matter. I don't wield death via mana, I wield death itself. And not just its negative part as thanks to your colleague's death I finally realized what my mistress's words meant. As a, admittedly reluctant, servant of the goddess of death, I hold the potential to exercise her rule over life and death wherever I walk.

I am no mere failure like undead nor do I have to rely on the limitations of mana to wield this element. Once I master my gifts, forget mythical ranks, even resurrecting ascended won't be a problem even if my power were to remain the same. These dregs are just pebbles to be crushed in my path or resources to be utilized.”

When she finished this rant, Melidra broke out of her trance. Momentarily confused, she felt conflicted when she realized that she had just subconsciously repeated the words that Cehlya whispered to her at the same time. As much as she agreed with them and found her original words lacking in comparison, she disliked the act of control.

Receiving no reply to her thoughts on it, she made the mental note to bring this complaint up during their next conversation.

Nonetheless going with it, she prompted Isaac to continue. As soon as he spoke she noticed a vastly friendlier attitude, a change of which she knew where it was coming from but that she couldn't fully understand.

“As I said, Deion took over the village but he needed a workforce and he wasn't going to risk it not being under his full control. Sending out the three undead to slaughter the village so that he could raise them later, he nearly fully achieved his goal. Only four people, me included, managed to get away and reach the city.

But our request wasn't even heard and slowly we four drifted apart. Two just started a new life while the last one and I fell out and became adventurers separately. The only reason we would ever work together again was to fulfill our original purpose, to free our families once we have enough strength. But considering that it's now been seven years and last year the city lost even a third rank mana user to his forces, finally making them pay attention to him, it won't happen anytime soon.”

When he finished the story, Melidra only looked at Lara in disbelief as she couldn't even remotely connect with his pain. She knew that she would be devastated if her family were dead, but compared to her years of captivity she was sure that it would be the lesser pain.

Nonetheless, she understood where his refusals came from and emphasized with it just enough to give him one last chance. The fact that his attitude changed considerably also played into that decision.

“Any changes in your answer?” She asked.

“I'll serve.” Isaac said, the complete lack of reluctance surprising her more than the answer itself.

Noticing this he added, “Why wouldn't I? Now that I know that you're a god's servant, I know that it isn't my place as a mortal to oppose you.”

“Even though it's the goddess of death?” Melidra asked in disbelief.

“A god is a god. Besides, the churches that worship her do a good job at hunting down necromancers that cross certain boundaries.”

“And for you, that's the lesser of the two evils, am I right?" Melidra asked and he nodded.

"Still, I'll use death energy as a fail-safe, I won't trust you that easily.”

Sending some death energy towards his life force core and reaching it without resistance, Melidra finally relaxed.

“Then it's time for me to see my family again.” She said with a sigh, her anticipation and excitement mixed with worry.