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The Darkness Triumphs

"Shit."

"What is it, Avila? Something's bothering you?"

"All of you might have known that the humans won't stand a chance against the army without our help, but I am feeling in rage when I knew they're using the dragons as defenses!"

"That's actually okay, Avila. Most of our defenses are from the Dark Sentinels."

"I mean, this place is huge! Are you trying to tell me that with a place this big there's no defense system like a ballista or any war machines? It's not like I'm ignorant with the war machines. They have time to make some, but not much. We only have five days to make defenses before it's too late."

Avila felt like everything around her had slowed. The dragons had been informed by the Dark Sentinels about the situation Avila heard from Ernest. With the black cyborg dragon she informed her friends. The dragons were accustomed to any dangers even if it wasn't their job (since the place they supposed to protect were now helped by their once enemies and it was as peaceful as it used to be), and tried to relay the message to the dragons. Riant understood the problem and helped them giving the warning to the dragons, and fortunately they knew the condition, mainly because of feeling a concentrated foul magic source moving ever closer to them. The younglings and their mothers were asked to fly away to safety while the capable dragons, both male and female, were trying to help the defenses.

It was the dragons, of course. The humans weren't doing anything to protect the place.

The anticipated panic wasn't seen for the past two days. The dragons were trying to do what they supposed to do slowly not to rouse any panic to the humans as they regarded the magical creatures as their guardians. Either what they were attempting had worked or the humans were ignorant, Avila didn't know. What she knew for sure, the guards didn't even try to make a public announcement or at least made any reinforced defenses for the attack. Though the dragons had known humans tended to be ignorant, this time it was too ignorant.

"Humans sometimes don't care on dragon's affair, Avila," said Riant when he met them near the plaza. "Especially to an unknown threat. Their magical sensory doesn't work as well as us, even mages."

"I thought they are aware on what condition on the war."

"Not now. Not after a long year for them. After that incident back in Dracokin and after taking this kingdom, the humans had forgotten the war. For them, the capture of this kingdom is a grandfather's tale. I can't blame them. Their lives are short."

"This is not going to end well, you know."

"Like I said, Avila, I can't blame them. We're not supposed to be involved in their problems, after all."

Avila made a low growl of disappointment before taking a walk to the human district. Thanks to her considerably small body she was able to walk freely at the streets of the kingdom. While her presence there sometimes gave fear to those she felt nearing the end of their lives, she knew she accepted her fate as a death dragon. Walking in the human district also gave her more time to understand human language, at least to communicate with them easily or just to see their culture, which was more diverse than the dragons.

As she walked in the middle of the hot afternoon she wanted to refresh her body from the heat and returned shortly to the dragon district when Ernest found her with Flicrist. The black dragoness clearly saw their distress and asked, "What happened?"

"Damn it, this is the worst case I've ever got," said Flicrist while baring his teeth. "I can't believe it."

"We need more dragons to help if they don't want to," replied Ernest while putting one of his hands (as you may or may not remember, Ernest was a biped dragon) to Flicrist's back. "I've seen worse."

"From both of your tones and conversation," said Avila after studying their actions. "I can say the humans are...too ignorant, right?"

"Goddamn, Avila, you're too perceptive!" exclaimed Ernest when he realized Avila was there. "Where did you get that kind of knowledge?"

"That's not what real problem we have, is it? Why are they so fucking ignorant?"

"I can't say much, Avila," said Flicrist. "But after being confined for two days inside the castle, the king came out exhausted and like someone who had gone through a fight. His hairs were loose, his expression was like a warrior of war, he didn't carry a cane, or even wear his crown or his royal clothes. I thought he had just gotten up but the blacks under his eyes told me otherwise. After dismissing his guards, he talked privately, and delivered that news. Of course we were mortified on the human's ignorance, and said that we must relay this message to your team, especially the one we can trust most, you."

"He said," said Ernest. "That the council members dismissed the scout's warning as a delusion, after a royal mage clearly identified him as slightly paranoid after losing her wife in an accident. As the final decision was set, the king made a consultation to one of his trusted mage and dragon rider and he confirmed the scout's warning. The members still didn't believe anything, and of course a debate occurred, to which they won. The king, of course, made a secret meeting with his counselors and devised a plan to protect the kingdom. That meeting's decision is to find any reinforcements from anything possible."

"I can't find more allies than my friends."

"Then the only thing we can do is to wait any reinforcements from Qeveriyt," said Ernest with a sigh. "How are we supposed to persuade the humans while keeping our head's up?"

"Well, let's hope we can survive the days."

Sannourah then surprised Avila by popping his head into the dragoness' view. His small body sometimes made him unrecognizable by the bigger dragons around them. He watched them for a while, somehow like trying to take in the information, then he whispered to Avila, which suddenly the dragoness made a yelp of surprise.

"Oh no, no! San, you can't do that! We can't trust them enough to help us!"

"C'mon now, Vila, you know they are reliable, right? The Sentinels aren't enough to make an army of dragons, so why don't we have them as friends?"

"Sannourah, this is not a child's game. It's true they are helping us guarding the whole realm but we can't be sure if they will betray us or not."

"Yet you saved one of them. Remember? They want to repay you for that and I can say you really need them now."

Avila was at first very hesitant on taking help from the Light dragons, as she was the one making the truce with a promise not to harm each other, yet they were grateful on her help. Her past experiences with Fenrico and Baritgetv were disastrous and made her thought of dirty things that could be done by the dragons. But much like how she threw suspicions to Xiciro, she was always over-protective to everything, not only herself. In the end, she was the one losing to the other's thoughts, so with a grunt again, she said, "Open the portal, Sannourah. Let me talk to them."

The little dragon just nodded and with a cut on the air opened a slit to the other world where she lived: Dark Realm. With a gesture, Ernest followed her while Flicrist stayed in his own realm, feeling bad on crossing to an unknown place.

Both Ernest and Avila were greeted by the eerie environment of the dark landscape of Dark Realm, where they both saw the twisted landscape and how gothic it was compared to the medieval place both of them originated from.

While walking, Ernest couldn't stop staring at how the people from a small town were using. They were mostly using black with distinctive make-up like trying to go to a funeral. Some even had whiter skin than normal humans, including some white dragons which were seemingly different from them, as if they were dead.

"So, Avila, this place where you got stranded is remarkably...like you."

"Thanks for that, Ernest. This is Dark Realm, the darkness part of the whole place. This is where the dark triumphs over light, in contrast to the other side. We're now keeping the peace of each world with the Dragons of the Light and the Dark Sentinels lending each other's paws to guard the realms. Most humans still couldn't believe this cooperation, but for us dragons, that's one hell of a development. It made us technologically advanced, especially arcane techs."

"There's a distinctive contrast between the light and the dark," said Ernest. "Where's the gray part?"

"Our culture and policy prohibits assimilation, so for those seeking marriage or mating to either side we must sacrifice one part of our life. Of course this only happen to humans. For dragons, that policy is not even implemented since, well, you can see those dragons up there."

Ernest turned his view to the sky and he could see two dragons, one a light blue female and one a black male. They were talking to each other while flying side by side, careful not to strike each other's wings. After they left his vision, the dragon said, "Those are normal."

"Not for us."

As they walked to the Black Lake, where everything around Avila's experiences always started, she was the first to see a black figure on the lake, guiding souls while sitting on some of the white ones. Ernest didn't seem to notice the demon dragon, but of course that's because he didn't have any 'eyes' to see them, not like most of the dragons living there.

"Oh, Yorloka. Busy as always, aren't you?"

The demon dragon heard her alright and dismissed some of the souls while walking to her. As he walked towards the shore he noticed the other black biped cyborg dragon, but when he scented him (Yorloka sensed souls), he said, "Wow, Vila, this dragon can't see me, huh?"

"He's one of my friends from my home dimension. Well, look at that. You two look the same to me."

Yorloka was normally a quad dragon, but he chose to live as a biped because of his front legs which looked like clawed hands, just like Seraphor. While he had virtually become that of a biped, his stance was still like a quad walking on two, yet he wasn't uncomfortable walking on four. Without his red eyes, demonic-looking ram horns and the tattoo, he looked identical to the yellow-eyed, slightly curved black horns, and half-machine black dragon, which suggested his body was that of Yorloka's parallel.

"What are you talking to, Avila? Is it an invisible dragon?"

"No, you just can't see or hear him because your soul is not tainted too much to be able to see him. He's a demon, so of course normal dragons won't be able to see him. As a matter of fact, that small dragon is also a demon, but you can see him like normal because he chose to be seen by normal dragons and had a hard time concealing himself."

"Yrelka can also be seen by normal untainted eyes. Some humans were mortified when she accidentally revealed when she forgot the Light boundaries."

"You can conceal yourself with your souls, okay? Sannourah uses dimension and she uses shadows. Oh, why are we talking like this? Just properly introduce yourself. Let him see you...."

"Whoa, whoa, wait, Avila. I think that's not a good idea if he's really a demon. I'll burn out my eyes seeing him."

"No, what kind of superstition is that?"

When Yorloka materialized in front of Ernest, he made a reaction to close his eyes, but then Avila surprised him and he opened his eyes forcibly, and then he saw the dragon, not in fear, but in awe.

"But...wow...you look like me," said Ernest while blinking. "Except those eyes and horns, you are me."

"Here, demon dragons are a race of Old World black dragons," said Avila while patting Yorloka. "They chose not to reveal themselves to humans because they were known as demons to them, but for us, they're one of our allies...."

"Not for Ploikla and Norbosa," said Yorloka with a huff. "After that incident down in the Old World they acted neutral to dragons and chose to conceal themselves from us. I guessed they were pissed after that phony destroyed most of the kingdom and impersonating the king."

"Let's not talk about that and let me say something. You see, Yor, he needs more allies to join the fight. The core members of the Dark Sentinels are not enough for the aid we need and we must ask something from you."

"What is that, then?"

"Can you ask some Light dragons to help us? Pertyivid won't refuse it if it is me who ask him."

"Maybe I can, but, there's a problem."

"And what is that?"

"Pertyivid died yesterday and he was succeeded by Yilvunid, his son. Yilvunid was away with some dragons for scouting the north and there's no leader for them for a while."

"What?! Pertyivid...? He was still..."

"I'm sorry, Avila. Pertyivid was already old when we met him for the first time. His son knew this would happen. He told me to keep an eye on things if both realms are in danger. We're friends, you know."

"But I thought..."

"And he got a sickness when he was exploring the sea."

Avila was pretty sad when she heard the sad news, but she knew, from all the things she had spent with the old dragon, she knew the dragon would die because of a disease that caused him not to be very active. Nonetheless, being a death dragon caused her to accept any condition from any dragon, but not humans. Her senses were too acute for the humans.

"Goddamn it. How am I supposed to ask reinforcement now? I know Yilvunid pretty well and he's just like his father, but without him I can't rally the Light dragons to help us."

"Well, you're fucked."

"Yor, can't there be any help? Look, I have a situation on the other side of the wormhole. A big army of dragon slayers will reach the kingdom I supposed to protect in only days. Without any help coming, my world won't last and I can't let that happen, not after I have abandoned it for 50 years."

"But...I'm a demon dragon."

"Yor, if those Light dragons believe in you, then you must take action. Yilvunid might understand. Please...this comes from a friend."

As Yorloka was too confused to take action, Ernest made an initiative by saying, "Look, man, if you're me, then you must know one sure thing. We're not going to let things loose."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Your name is Yorloka, right? I won't tell you this again. We'll both going to get their help. I'll help you."

"Wha..."

Without any questions Ernest made a sudden quick move from one of his metallic hands. The strong mechanical grip made Yorloka howled in pain while Ernest opened his now half metallic wings. Avila didn't have time to tell Ernest about Yorloka's condition when the bigger dragon unnaturally flew up with such speed and sped away while Yorloka was still in tow, being dragged airborne and disappeared.

"I always wait..."

A moment later, after sleeping a while, Avila opened her eyes to meet with both Ernest and Yorloka, both had now become more of friends.

"Vila, they're ready to go with you," said Ernest. "Apparently their leader was still mourning on his father's loss, but knowing that our world is in danger, he dispatched some of the dragons while the rest followed."

"But...how did you..."

"That's why darkness triumphs."

Ernest then opened his clawed hands and from inside a hologram of some sort came out, where Ernest gave the fake vision of a war which saw some of her dark comrades were killed by the coming armies, where he made a little twist with how hopeless most of her friends had.

The disturbing alternate outcome made Avila shook a little as she saw herself getting killed in the hologram, which was disturbing even for her. She watched it for a moment before it faded away into Ernest's modified dragon clawed hand. When Avila had known that they needed to return, she asked for Sannourah to open the portal back, only to be held by Ernest.

"Wait, Avila, let me try to open one."

"After you made me stranded here for 10 years? No, I prefer Sannourah, thank you."

Ernest, without talking, made a strong spark of dark electricity out from his draconic hand, where the tip of his tail also made a dark electricity sphere. With his sparking hand he took the ball and said, "I suggest you take a cover."

Avila knew this would happen again and she scrambled behind Ernest when he threw the ball and a vortex sucked some vegetation around it. Avila then saw the other side of the landscape. It was the front gate of the kingdom, where it was made from marble.

"So? How is it?"

"That was a little too...complicated than making a slit at the air."

"Oh, damn you," said Ernest while stepping inside the vortex.