looming in the crater

7/23/2019 Looming in the Crater

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She was not crowned young. She was crowned before her time, however. It was the first time I

thought of politics as malleable.

Ba’al, My New Order

“This is the Crater of Eversearing Lava, the sky is always filled with ash.” Queen

Merosha pointed out to Corgea.

Queen Merosha took my allies into the crater. Corgea and Juji fell in rank with Dirk,

Charlotte, Regan and Xavier. Merosha took four celestial guards so that she had a force of ten

people behind her. Juji was responsible for taming a wingless blue dragon. She never let her

own spirit fall after she had lost her companion Asher, her blue dragon, No’orza or her

companion’s dragon, Akemanga. She was the first one who jumped at Thillby’s call to journey

away from the monastery. She followed Valencia into the crater with her head up and her chest

forward.

The sky was dark with smoke like a dragon’s belly. The militia left footprints like snow inthe ash on the ground. The rubble underneath was red and hot to the touch. They walked along

a landbridge of comfortable proportion with bright lava slowly churning in the opposite direction

on either side. Beyond the hazy air, the towering walls of the crater encircled the entire space -

one could not see the desert beyond the crater. The militia, Merosha included, coughed in a

cacophonic rhythm as they marched silently forward. Nobody could see the scowl on Merosha’s

face, let alone her curled lips or furrowed brow. She led them forward toward the massive,

looming volcano that was actively spewing lava forth. The igneous walls of the cone spewed

forth molten red, roaring as it churned. Obsidian rock overhung the entrance into the volcano. It

curled upward, keeping lava off the trail and splitting it into two rivers that flanked either side of

the path. The sound of the angry mountain became deafening as they got closer.

“Do not disappoint me, Rowan king.” Valencia shouted over the turbulent atmosphere.

“Talk to me after we bring it to rubble!” He shouted back.

The heat put immense pressure on their skin. Sweat began to pour before they had even

begun to fight. Their skin radiated trying to acclimate to the outside of a volcano that did not

know rest. Nobody touched each other, glances were quick and shrewd. The intensity of the

crater made the calm worse than whatever storm may have befallen them once they got inside.

Queen Merosha unsheathed her sword from her side as she walked underneath the obsidian

outcrop. Her sword glowed with runic power. The green blade was etched with thin-sliced runes.

The metal was castle-forged from sterling adamantite. She dawned only modest leather greaves

and white-threaded leather over her chest. Her arms, upper legs, midriff and neck were

exposed. She had green, silhouetted sheer cloth that fit her form, but hid her extremities from

quick sight. Her enemies were unable to find her body from only a swordsman’s glance.



As she walked inside, everybody followed in her wake. The inside was quiet. The

muffled rummaging of lava finding the surface could be heard. The heat dissipated, the inside of

the volcano was insulated from the lava to a level that no longer made the militia question

whether or not to wear armor.

“Do not let them see my back.” Valencia commanded. “Rank up and give me a clear shot at thatdoor.”

The inside of the volcano was lit by candle light. A chandelier hung by chains that

illuminated much of the room. The lava from outside casted a shadow out in front of the militia.

To the left and to the right, holes were hollowed out of the volcano which let lava light in. In front

of them, beyond the ascending stairs, there was a decorated door with hieroglyphical symbols

etched into it, a massive, gray stone door was closed. The room was incredibly large and

spacious with smoothed stone floors. The stairs led up a second story that was large enough to

give a speech to an army from. The room looked functionally like a sparring hall in the middle of

an active volcano.

Slowly and deliberately, my friends all began to make a formation. Dirk stood off-right of

Merosha, Charlotte stood in the center of the forming cone. Regan and Xavier looked out to a

side, Corgea stood off-left of the queen. Juji guarded the entrance and the celestials stood

behind Charlotte and in front of Juji, waiting. They all had readied weapons when the massive

stone door was split in half and a large man walked out.

“It’s been too long, Valencia!” His booming voice shouted out.

“No it hasn’t!” She shouted back. She gripped the hilt of her sword in both hands.

“Don’t play coy, Merosha. That’s never been your strong suit. Ahahahaha.” The man with a

patternistic tattoo on his face laughed.

“Give me back Aqua while you still draw breath!” She began to gnash her teeth.

“I’ll be in this room, your majesty.” He stated firmly as he turned his back and left the room,

closing the door behind him.

A large bell chimed. A dragon roared over the churning lava. The dragon was louder

than they had been accustomed to. The militia heard synchronized stomping coming from the

open holes in the room. Hulking beasts of men began marching into the room. One marched up

from every entrance, totalling five all together. They outsized Juji’s dragon. Their shirtless visage

showed their meaty bodies that had layers of thick fat covering their gigantic muscles. Upon

their legs, they wore platemail greaves that covered every angle under their torso. The giants

had flails and canes. The flails had iron sticks chained to a central hilt and the canes were



curved into three-quarter circles. The celestial guard split to aid an angle that the intrepid

fighters had looked out towards the enemies.

Charlotte shot the fighter on the lower floor on the left side with an arrow. It pierced into

the left side of his chest and exploded. He let out a grunt. The hulking giants all began to charge

forward from every angle.

Regan and Xavier had to be evasive in their defense of the formation. On either side, the

giants attacked with the same rhythm: they made a large sweeping attack with their flail before a

quick slice with their cane. The two had scouted that much out with a large backwards jump

after getting in close range.

From the backside, Juji’s dragon met a man’s large flail with his claw. Juji sprinted

forward and rolled underneath a swipe of the cane. She jumped up to his shoulder to try and get

at his neck. With the cane, he grabbed her by the neck and threw her back onto the floor on her

butt. She rolled back as her blue dragon came to her defense.

As Valencia walked forward, the dragon again roared over the battle ensuing inside the

volcano. She walked up the steps while Dirk and Corgea went to meet the soldiers at the top of

the staircase. The upper level did not have railings, so a quick movement from the two allies of

the Majestic Throne kept the cane-wielding bandits from jumping down and interfering with a

fight going on below. As Dirk met a secondary cane slice with his shield, the roar had become

louder than ever before.

Suddenly, the roof caved in right in front of Merosha. A black dragon as large as the

stone door in every dimension came roaring forth from up above. Lava began to drip into theroom. The dragon revealed a neck that Merosha could not reach as it let out a screech upward.

At the apex of a recoil, Corgea and Dirk made desperate sprints to guard the queen. Valencia

did not flinch as Dirk’s mithril-reinforced sword met the claws of a swiping dragon. Corgea, who

had gotten the upper hand against his opponent, had an opportunity to block the fleshy colossus

from attacking Dirk’s back.

“The room’s secure, Queeny!” Dirk roared out.

The rampaging giant that Corgea had originally struck ignored Dirk and the black dragon

to take a strike at the Rowan king’s back. With his battle-tamed awareness, he looked back and

parried the flail with a dark mana encased arm. Dirk, with a mighty cry, rammed his shield into

the bottom of the black dragon’s unscaled stomach and pushed him to aside from the door.

Merosha put her sword down to her side and walked forward, her green cloth formed up against

her body. She pushed open the stone door while exhaling and slipped past it into the other

room.



On the bottom level, Charlotte provided cover fire for Regan against the man to the right

of the stone door. Mana seemed to be an effective counter to the lava-forged bandits. While his

head was agile enough to dodge a few arrows, their bodies were hardy enough to withstand the

four arrows that Charlotte had thus far dug into his flesh. Even after crystalline detonation, only

one of his wounds even began to drip appreciable blood. He was still charging wildly around,

trying to get a proper grip on Regan. The purple manic took much more focus towards her owndefense, she figured that Charlotte’s volley should have been enough to stop her opponent.

As the giant struck down with a cane slice, she dodged out of the way and threw purple

mana at his neck. It did not seem to stop his rage. He began a flurry of attacks with his quick

cane. In a heaving shout, he lumbered forward. Regan turned her back to him and began to run

towards the stairs. As she heard Charlotte’s arrow clang again his metal greaves, she turned

around as she jumped and let her momentum take her up a few stairs. The cane had missed.

The bandit readied his flail for a large attack, but Charlotte managed to hit an arrow in an

already bleeding hole in his shoulder. As it exploded, the man groaned. Regan jumped down

the three stairs and encased her hand in purple mana. She gripped her prey’s neck on her waydown on, landing on her feet and letting go of the fibrous neck. His head began to droop. He

looked at her from his downturned head - his face rested in a frown. He began to charge back at

her, towards the group of people. As Regan rolled towards the side, Charlotte shot an arrow

right into his eye socket. As it exploded, the hulking bandit was brought to his knees. A celestial

guard came over and took his spear and aimed it at the paralyzed giant’s chest. The tip began

to glow white with mana as he reamed it through the chest, finalizing the kill.

As Regan and Charlotte looked over, they could tell immediately that Xavier’s opponent

showed the beginning signs of frostbite. He had dropped his cane and his hand was swollen

and red. The celestial guard that had relegated himself to assisting the azure assassin wasstanding off to the side, spectating. The bald headed bandit, Xavier’s opponent, had a lumbering

and wildly swinging flail. This was complemented by Xavier’s quick and precise management of

his battling space, he did not want the guard interfering. He stayed well out of the flail’s path. In

a move of unconcentrated frustration, the giant man pushed his flail towards the katana-wielding

assassin after he had missed his swing. Xavier took the initiative to grab onto soon-to-be prey’s

shoulder. He lept up onto his opponent’s well-muscled back and, taking out his katana, plunged

it through the bandit’s neck. It went all the way through, as metal tip clanged against the stone

before the flesh of the corpse followed it.

With a wingless, blue dragon wrapped around her opponent’s arms, Juji was also

victorious in her battle. The blue dragon restricted the movement of either arm and the dragon

was ripping away at the flesh of his arm with his fangs. The celestial guards had taken their

spears and began relentlessly shoving them through the man’s stomach again and again. The

prey was no longer resisting, he came tumbling to the floor, blood pooling around him. Xavier

put his katana through the neck, to be sure about the kill.



Dirk’s opponent was a feral black dragon. Winged by nature, it had only stumps of where

its wings had been cut off. A flurry of slices and missing scaled covered it’s leathery body.

Proportionally, it was massive, matching Dirk’s eyes with its own while charging forward at him.

His fiery sword matched the dragon’s swipe, numbing both of their hands in the process. In an

opening, Dirk bashed his shield against the dragon’s snout, angering it. The dragon could not

speak, so all that came out of its mouth was a screech and dragonfire. Dirk’s shield dissipatedthe heat across the surface. As the beast got up on its hind legs to shoot fire again, Dirk threw

his sword at the unscaled underbelly. As it struck, the dragon was stunned. Dirk sent fiery mana

through the chain he had attached to his sword and set the wound ablaze.

The dragon’s agony appeared in its broken screech. Dirk attempted to pull his sword

back, but the dragon followed the blade. He jumped on top of dirk and began to strike at him

wildly. Scratches and slashed were blocked by armor and his shield. With no route of attacking

from on bottom of the beast, the knight in tested armor grabbed onto the dragon’s wrist and his

own chain. He radiated mana out as fervently as he could. The heat found its way into the

webbing of its claw and the sword wound in its belly. With grunts, the dragon whipped its tailand recoiled back, letting Dirk onto his feet again and the sword back into his hand. The dragon

was dripping blood onto the ground. Dirk picked up a boulder and threw it at the dragon as it

was inhaling, ready to spit more dragonfire. It hit the dragon’s mouth, sending fire down the

unoccupied stairs. Dirk, sword in hand, charged forward at the black dragon and swept his

sword down the unscaled underbelly once again. The wound made blood pour down the

dragon’s chest. The dragon began to charge around Dirk who put his shield up in anticipation.

The beast put its underside to the ground and groaned. It had had enough fighting.

“I can feel you being pathetic, paladin!” Corgea shouted.

The fighting had begun to wind down, the clatter of battle no longer filled the room.

Corgea could shout over what was left in the room.

Dirk took his sword and held it above his head.

“Die, fowl beast!” Dirk screamed.

He sliced the back of the dragon’s neck, but it did not penetrate all the way through. He

took his blade, in a second attempt, and shoved it into the dragon’s snout, causing blood to

come out of both strikes. The dragon that had lost the will to fight trembled until life had escaped

it.

Looking over, he saw Corgea swipe his second giant’s chest with his own cane, causing

him to fall to the floor. The dark manic had bested his two opponents in combat in the time it

took the rest of the militia to finish their conflicts.



Valencia Merosha had found herself on the other side of the large stone door. Torches

encircled the room. Above her was the sky from the mouth of the mountain, she was in the heart

of eversearing volcano. Beyond the circular floor in front of her was the bandit lord, looking

down into the lava. Above him, to Merosha’s left, was Aqua, her friend. She was suspended in a

cage with rags covering only her crotch.

“Valencia!!” She cried out. She rattled the cage and began swinging. She was precariously

hanging above either land of lava.

“Did you get my love letter, Valencia?” the man said.

He was facing away from her, towards the lava. He was a black spot protruding into the

glow of magma inside the heart of the volcano. The inside of the room was a deep purple black

and barren, devoid of chairs, holes or any geographic texture.

“You knew it was a death sentence to anger me!” Valencia shouted. The bandit lord turnedaround.

“I let you live, Ozo! Why would you do this to the Majestic Throne?!” She continued to shout her

heart out.

Ozo moved forward towards her.

“That’s why Aqua still has what’s left of her purity.” Ozo spoke back.

“I’m utterly relieved that you did not violate my friend. Do you believe I will reward your pettinesswith a ransom?” Merosha spat at the floor.

“Merosha! We used to sandboard through dunes together. You, me and Aqua looked at clouds

in the sky before your vision became blinded by a royal roof!” Ozo began to sympathize with the

queen.

Merosha took a small pause for a breath.

“Would those skies be a suitable last memory for you?” She said slowly through her frown.

“I’m saying that I would like an ounce of mercy from an old friend.” Ozo said with his head down.

Merosha looked at him, he had a sword by his side, but his hands were empty.

“WATCH OUT VALLY!” Aqua screamed frantically.



Merosha jumped back and readied her blade parallel to the ground for a strike. Nothing

else moved. Ozo remained motionless and the room itself was filled only by the sound of

churning magma and battling on the other side of the door. Aqua began crying hysterically.

“You really thought you would get a ransom for kidnapping your old friend, you deluded fool!”

Merosha sank into her brow again.

“I would rather you violate me, Merosha.” Ozo began to raise his voice. “I would rather you

violate me than end me here! I’m under orders, Merosha! This is what I had to do.”

“Tell me in a single sentence before I regret giving you the chance.”

Ozo was a large man. He was smaller than the giants that the militia had been chasing,

but his stature was still mightier than a celestial guard’s. His face had only the beginnings of

wrinkles. His hair was short, yet unkempt brown with a trace of blonde on the right side. He had

a tattoo on the right side of his face and a black robe that rested on the floor. Underneath, hehad sandals and lightweight cloth.

“The corruption runs deeper than you imagine and I had to do this.” Ozo said, quickly and firmly.

“Raise your weapon.” Merosha said calmly.

“Merosha, I-” He began again.

“RAISE YOUR WEAPON!” She commanded.

Merosha’s runic blade began to glow. She struck down at Ozo who blocked the sword

with his own. It was high grade mithril. With unfettered, slices Valencia pushed Ozo backward.

She controlled the tempo of the swordfight.

“I’m surprised it came to this, Queen.” Ozo said.

“That’s too bad.” She replied.

With a counterstrike, Valencia had sliced the wrist of Ozo’s sword hand. He dropped the

weapon and began to bleed.

“You wouldn’t even have to torture me to get me to talk, Merosha.” Ozo pleaded calmly.

Merosha aimed for the nose as she reamed her sword through Ozo’s skull. The shell of

meat fell to the floor in a pool of blood.



Silently, Merosha made her way to Aqua’s cage. She found the wheel to crank to lower

the cage. She had to go back over to Ozo’s corpse to find the key. When she walked back, she

opened Aqua’s cage. The girl was frantic. She was a tiny girl with blonde hair. Valencia offered

her Ozo’s robe to cover her exposed breasts and legs. With only a small amount of blood

splattered around the collar, she agreed. The two walked out of the room, Valencia first, with her

sword drawn and Ozo’s by her side. When she opened the stone door, she was greeted by avictorious militia.

“The room is secure, Queen Merosha!” Juji exclaimed at the top of the stairs.

The militia let out a somber clap.

“We’re almost done skinning the dra-” Dirk began.

“You have until I exit the volcano to finish gathering your effects.” Merosha commanded. She

walked forward with Aqua under her shoulder. Nobody said another word. The silence wascharacterized by churning lava and heat.

The militia followed her at once.

looming in the crater

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