Sinbad POV
I walked out of the chamber, my legs steady beneath me as I tried not to think about the devastating reality that I was no longer an Awakened. Years of training, of slowly grabbing essence from the surroundings and forming my core, of feeling that warm power flow through my veins—all of it was gone. My core had simply vanished, leaving me hollow.
But as my eyes grew accustomed to the strange, ethereal light filtering through what seemed to be an impossible sky, I saw something which made them widen in absolute disbelief. I was standing on a narrow ledge of weathered stone that jutted out from the middle of a colossal cliff face. Below and around me stretched an endless landscape that defied everything I thought I knew about the world.
Vast pastures of green, broken by crystalline waterfalls that seemed to pour from the every side of the tower.
But it wasn't the breathtaking, alien beauty of this realm that caught my attention and held it in a grip of ice-cold terror. It was the creatures soaring through the sky.
Dragons.
Actual, living dragons—creatures I had only heard about in stories, monsters that humanity was supposed to have driven back into the darkest corners of the world generations ago. Yet here they were, dozens of them.
"What in the gods' names is this place?" I muttered, my voice barely a whisper as I tried to process what I was seeing.
The words had barely left my lips when one of the flying monsters—a dragon easily one and a half times my size, with scales the color of copper—suddenly banked in my direction. Its reptilian eyes, each the size of my fist, locked onto me with an intelligence that was both alien and terrifyingly focused.
Time seemed to slow as the beast tucked its wings and dove straight at me like a living spear.
I threw myself to the side, my unawakened body moving clumsily compared to the fluid grace I had once possessed. The dragon's claws, each longer than my forearm, scraped against the stone where I had been standing just a heartbeat before, sending sparks flying and leaving deep gouges in the rock.
The creature didn't stop after missing me. Instead, it spread its wings wide, catching an updraft, and soared past my precarious perch before diving downward toward the base of the cliff. Curiosity and a growing sense of dread compelled me to follow its flight path.
I ran to the edge of my rocky outcropping and looked down, my stomach lurching at what I saw.
Far below, scattered across a narrow ledge that ran along the cliff face, were the soldiers from Dragul's expedition. But they weren't standing in formation or following orders. They were fighting for their lives against a swarm of dragons, and they were losing badly.
The scene was a massacre painted in screams and blood.
Dragons swooped down, their talons finding purchase in armor and flesh with sickening ease. Some soldiers were grabbed bodily and carried high into the air, only to be dropped onto the jagged rocks below. Others tried to form defensive lines, but without their essence-enhanced strength and speed, they were pitifully outmatched.
I watched one dragon, its scales a deep emerald green, land directly in the middle of a group of five soldiers. Its tail swept two men off the ledge before they could even react, while its claws eviscerated a third. The remaining two tried to flee but found themselves cornered against the cliff face.
In the midst of this chaos, I spotted the commander—Dragul—standing with his back to a wall of stone, his sword flashing as he fought off a particularly large dragon with midnight-blue scales. Even from this distance, I could see that something was wrong with his movements.
It really seemed like every single person who had entered this place had been reduced to mere mortality, left to face monsters with nothing but steel.
Had this been the fate of the previous expedition? Had even the saint, been reduced to a normal human before being torn apart by these beasts? If so who had had the power to make it so? And what was the Spell?
"Don't fall out of line!" Dragul's voice carried up to me on the strange winds of this place, hoarse with effort and barely controlled panic. "Move forward along the cliff! Keep formation!"
I watched him block with his shield before slicing through one of the dragon's wings with a stroke that would have been masterful even for an ordinary swordsman. The creature tumbled over the edge with a shriek that echoed off the canyon walls. But his victory was short-lived—three more dragons immediately moved to take the fallen one's place.
More and more soldiers kept falling. The defensive line was crumbling, and it wouldn't be long before the entire expedition was wiped out.
I gnashed my teeth as I looked around, weighing my options. It didn't matter that these were soldiers of the empire, the same empire that had threatened my village and forced me into this position. It didn't matter that their commander had been ready to drag me away in chains just hours ago. They were still humans, and I couldn't just stand here and watch them be slaughtered.
My father's voice echoed in my memory.
"You'll guide the people, Sin. You'll be the man who changes the world."
In a moment of desperate decision, I grabbed the edge of the cliff and let myself drop, controlling my descent as much as possible by catching hold of rocky protrusions and using them to slow my fall. My palms scraped raw against the stone, and my shoulders screamed in protest, but I managed to avoid plummeting to my death.
My feet hit the ground hard enough to send shockwaves up through my legs, making them shake. I stumbled but managed to keep my footing as I looked around at the carnage surrounding me.
It was even worse up close.
Bodies of soldiers lay scattered across the ledge, some missing limbs, others sporting gaping wounds that no mortal man could survive. The stone beneath my boots was slick with blood, and the acrid smell of death filled my nostrils.
Almost all of them were already dead, their lifeless eyes staring up at the alien sky. I gnashed my teeth and grabbed a spear from the ground near a fallen soldier, testing its weight in my hands. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Looking around desperately, I spotted the only person who seemed to still be alive and fighting.
The commander was backed against the cliff wall at the far end of the ledge, a massive brown-scaled dragon looming over him like death itself. The beast's eyes glowed with malevolent intelligence as it prepared to finish him off.
I didn't stop to think about the wisdom of what I was about to do. I simply acted.
Drawing my arm back, I hurled the spear with every ounce of strength my unawakened body could muster. The weapon flew true, piercing through the back of the dragon's skull with a wet, crunching sound. Dark blood sprayed from the wound as the creature's roar died in its throat.
Then I heard something that made me freeze in confusion—a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once:
[You have slain a dormant monster, Lightning King's spawn]
"Huh? Who said that!" I yelled into the air, spinning around to look for the source of the voice. There was no one there except me and the commander. I scratched at my ear, wondering if the stress was making me hear things. "That's weird."
The dragon's massive corpse crashed to the ground beside the commander, who was staring at me with an expression of shock and what might have been grudging gratitude.
"You—" he began, but I cut him off with an urgent gesture.
"Yeah, I know, just follow me," I said, my eyes scanning the sky as more dragons continued to circle overhead like vultures. "We need to move before they decide to investigate."
But when I turned to check if he was following, I saw that he was still standing there like a statue, apparently too stunned or too proud to accept help from someone he considered an enemy.
"Come on, man, hurry!" I urged him. "We need to climb down and find cover!"
A shadow passed over us, and I looked up to see another dragon—this one with scales that gleamed like polished silver—beginning its diving attack. There was no time for the commander's wounded pride.
I unsheathed my father's blade in one fluid motion, the familiar weight of it providing a small comfort in this nightmare landscape. As the dragon swooped down with its claws extended, I sidestepped at the last possible moment and brought the sword up in a diagonal slash that caught the creature across the throat.
The blade, sliced clean through scales, flesh, and bone. The dragon's head separated from its body in a spray of dark blood that painted the rocks around us.
[You have slain a dormant monster, Lightning King's spawn]
There was that mysterious voice again, but I couldn't spare the mental energy to puzzle over it right now. We were still in mortal danger.
"Move!" I barked at the commander, and this time he seemed to shake off his shock enough to follow.
What followed was a terrifying pastime as we scrambled down the treacherous cliff face, using every outcropping and crevice for cover while dragons swooped and dove around us like deadly birds of prey. My lungs burned with the effort of climbing while constantly watching the sky, and my hands were soon raw and bleeding from gripping the rough stone.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only minutes, we reached a relatively safe spot—a jagged stone overhang that jutted out from the cliff face, a small rock cave dug into it, partially obscured by what looked like steam or mist rising from somewhere far below.
I collapsed onto the narrow ledge, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. The commander slumped against the rock wall beside me, looking as exhausted as I felt.
"How did you get inside the Tower before me?" I asked between ragged gasps, wiping sweat and blood from my forehead. "I thought I was the first one here."
He looked at me with those calculating eyes that seemed too old for his youthful face. "You're that pacifist kid. Go mind your own business."
I felt a surge of irritation at his ingratitude. "What? I just saved your life—"
"I'm a soldier," he interrupted, his voice cold and formal despite our circumstances. "I have no reason to be helped by a traitor who opposes our nation."
I shook my head in disbelief.
"I don't care about stuff like 'reasons,'" I said, settling myself more comfortably on our precarious perch. "You were in trouble and I helped. Besides, what's already happened can't be changed."
I studied his face, noting the tension in his jaw and the way his hand never strayed far from his sword hilt. "Did you also lose your core?" I asked, already knowing the answer but wanting confirmation.
"Yeah," he admitted grudgingly.
"Any idea how?"
"No clue."
I let out a bitter laugh. "So we're both completely screwed."
"Don't use such language in front of a noble and your superior," he snapped, some of his old arrogance reasserting itself.
"Uh, what?" I stared at him in amazement. Here we were, powerless and hunted, and he was still worried about protocol?
His spine straightened as he fell into what was obviously a well-rehearsed recitation.
"You are standing in the presence of nobility of Parthevia, the youngest scion of the Dragul family. Son of General Draguliel Henrius Nomidus Pertegomidus. Commander of the Western Regional Military Division. I am Dragul Nol Henrius Govius Menudias Partenuvonomias Dumid Os Kartanon."
I blinked at him slowly, processing the absurdly long string of names. "That's way too long," I finally said, pointing at him with my index. "Let's go with Drakon for short. You're Drakon now, okay?"
"You insolent—!" he sputtered, launching himself at me with surprising speed for someone who had just been fighting for his life.
"It's way too long!" I protested, grabbing a handful of his green hair as we grappled. "My name is S-I-N-B-A-D—only six letters!"
"How dare you insult the Dragul name!" he snarled as we continued our impromptu wrestling match on the narrow ledge. "I'm going to kill you!"
We separated and both reached for the hilts of our sheathed blades simultaneously, the steel singing as they began to clear leather. We might have actually tried to kill each other right then and there, despite everything we'd been through.
But then a massive shadow fell over us, so large and encompassing that it seemed to block out the strange light of this realm entirely.
We both looked up at the sky, our petty dispute instantly forgotten.
Flying high above us was a formation of dragons, but they weren't what made my blood turn to ice in my veins. It was the creature in the center of their formation—a dragon so enormous that I could only see its belly and the undersides of its wings, yet even that partial view was enough to dwarf everything else in the sky.
The thing had to have a wingspan of at least forty meters, probably more and as it flew through the sky it carried the current of the air like a hurricane.
We scrambled for the nearest cover—the small cave that had been carved into the rocky outcropping, probably by wind and water over countless years. As we pressed ourselves against the stone walls, I couldn't help but whisper:
"It seems like we're going to have to kill that thing."
"Agreed," Drakon replied grimly, all traces of our earlier animosity forgotten in the face of this new threat.
But just as we were finally beginning to work together, one of the smaller dragons broke away from the formation above and dove straight toward our hiding spot. With a sinking feeling, I realized what was happening.
"The caves," I muttered, understanding flooding through me. "They're probably the dragons' homes, and this one already has a tenant."
The dragon that lived in our chosen refuge was different from the others we'd encountered. Its scales were pure white, like fresh snow, but it was just a monster like everyone else. As it landed at the mouth of the cave and opened its jaws wide, preparing to incinerate us where we cowered, I knew we had seconds to act.
"Grab your shield!" I hissed at Drakon, drawing my father's blade. "I'll kill it!"
He nodded and raised his large shield just as the dragon crashed into us with the force of an avalanche. The impact drove him to his knees, but he held firm, his shield absorbing the brunt of the creature's charge.
In that moment of opportunity, I struck.
I drove my blade deep into the dragon's skull, feeling it pierce through scale and bone until it found the soft brain tissue beneath. Hot blood spurted forth, covering my hands and arms as the beast thrashed in its death throes.
[You have slain a dormant monster, Lightning King's spawn]
The familiar voice echoed in my mind again, but this time it continued with something new.
[You have received a memory: Dragon's Garment]
A/N: I think I'll be done with the first nightmare in the next chap, but if not it will be definitely be done in two. I decided to reupload this cause I was having some problems with the original.