17 Sitting on the Mountain and Watching the Tigers Fight

The Lord Ikal saw for the first time that in the quiet and peaceful demeanor of the three, a ripple had started, bloodlust emanated for a second or two before it completely vanished from their eyes. He sighed and ordered, "Egon, bring her to the bird's nest. Let the birds of the air watch over her and make sure to order them that they must keep her company, they must distract her for a while."

Soon enough the Lord disappeared, his orders, as if a whisper from the scarce wind. Micaheil and Lucien looked at Egon at the same time. They nodded at him, Egon nodded in agreement and left.

Egon travelled swiftly and soon enough arrived at the Bird's Nest.

~Bird's Nest~

The sky above the bird's nest was now shrouded with ominous clouds. Every once in a while, the cracks of lightnings formed in the sky was becoming visibly thicker. The thunder roared as if it was alive, as if a monster shackled inside the dense clouds had gone insane from being imprisoned.

When Egon placed Prime on the nest, the cold air suddenly became a force to be reckoned with, it blew Egon a li away from Prime. He was bewildered by this strange phenomenon, he wanted to return to Prime's side but while he was distracted by the sudden onslaught, the wind started to carry Prime high up in the sky. One would even think she was consciously flying up to the sky for her lying position was now standing. The updraft of the supercell made her hair fly up, her clothes imposing even in the face of distortion. She was like a free spirit, nature seemed to be one with her... but also... not one with her. An unusual bead lightning struck Prime. She was enveloped by one of the beads the Lightning had formed. And for thirty seconds, as if the beaded lightning was attracted to Prime, she was hit three times.

Everything happened too fast. Egon was still contained by the fierce wind that enveloped him. When the second lightning struck, his heart beating out of himself, powerless to save Prime, as if his soul left him.

Deities weren't immune to lightning. It was one of the rites of heaven[1]. The lightning was immensely powerful, it created fire unto the bird's nest.

Out of nowhere the Lady and the Lord appeared. The Lady walked at the right side of Egon, the Lord walked on the left side.

"The convection here is immense. Why did you ask him to bring her here?" the Lady asked as she stared at Prime who was still enveloped by the lightning.

"I didn't expect the heavens to play us like we aren't part of it." the Lord replied blandly, he also gazed at the girl up above.

Iroko pointed at the clouds, "Really... with that supercell thunderstorm up there. You had to just..." there was a hint of frustration from her words.

Ikal just looked at her with all seriousness as he said, "It is bound."

Understanding what he meant, she sighed and agreed, "It is..."

Egon did not understand their conversation, the wind was still rampantly detaining him.

The Lord looked at the Lady, she slowly closed her eyes, the moment her eyes closed, she was also struck by lightning.

The Lord sighed, he knew that he could not stop her. The Lord drew his right hand forward, his fist clenched. There seemed to be power in it and when he opened his hand, a magic circle appeared. The magic circle had a yellow light and it immediately covered the expanse of the Bird's Nest. The fire that was ignited by the lightning dispersed into the air. The wind became a normal convection that helped to maintain the storm, it no longer bothered with Egon. The sudden disappearance of the wind shocked Egon, so much so that he thrust forward. Luckily, he composed himself and stopped his fall.

The lightning continuously and respectively struck both the Lady and Prime. The Lady started to control the lightning as it made an obscure path towards Prime. The lightning she was in became a forked lightning which spread out and dispersed making way for new lightning to spread out and striking her in a more fearsome manner as she drew closer to Prime. The moment she was just a meter away, Prime suddenly opened her eyes and faced her. She then disregarded Iroko as she looked up to the sky for she felt another presence up above.

"Primeriza... you are finally awake..." A voice said with yearning.

"Another one..." Prime said in the midst of the howling wind. "Someone else is calling me."

Iroko's eyes widened, 'it shouldn't be this early...'

Suddenly, a hatchling dragon appeared from the clouds, following it was a full grown dragon.

The full grown dragon looked at Iroko intently. "My Lady, you have finally brought her."

Iroko remarked in an imposing manner, "Coming out without my orders, quite daring."

The full grown dragon did not notice the slight hostility in her eyes, rather, the dragon noticed Prime. "The heavens have sent us for her."

The hatchling slowly flew towards Prime. It then entered the lightning trial of Prime. The hatchling spoke, "Such a rich and dense electric current." It looked at Prime with adoration as it slowly drew near her.

Prime saw the hatchling, well, not exactly Prime. More like her Unconscious was awoken and was the one currently facing the hatchling. "Was it you?" She asked telepathically.

The hatchling nodded its head. In the midst of the lightning, slowly its skin started to emit steam as if something was burning within, its eyes started to have a bloody red glow. The lightning dispersed and was no longer reaching the earth. However, another lightning struck Prime and the hatchling, all its current condensed at the point where Prime and the hatchling were at. Prime smiled and caressed the hatchling's head. The electric current intensified until they could no longer see Prime and the hatchling. The ribbon lightning seemed to seal off the two. The parallel lightnings emitted an intense blue light, all points had no visibility, only the ribbon lightning could be seen.

Afterwards all the lightning was redirected to the hatchling. Prime was watching from the side, there was this coldness about her that didn't seem to match her personality. She looked at the full grown dragon. "You are?"

The full grown dragon noticed the boldness Prime had in the way she spoke, it even carried with it a hint of fearlessness. The dragon grunted and did not speak to her. Prime cocked her head to the left. Even though she was curious, the hatchling was more important. She slowly walked in the air towards the ribboned lightning. She was engulfed by its bright light.

Iroko wanted to make a move but stopped the moment the lightning ribboned intensified. "This is not..."

"What was agreed upon." the full grown dragon completed her unfinished words. Its eyes weren't anything like the vibrantly red eyes of the hatchling, its eyes contained a hue of darkness. It eyed Iroko before a mesocyclone formed in its area. Then, a cloud-to-ground lightning which was the thickest of them all in terms of width hit the full grown dragon while the updraft continuously created a storm. The thunder that followed was so loud that everyone present could feel the intense vibrations of the exploding air. The soul piercers received the greatest injury, since they were mortals, they could not take the supersonic vibrations of the thunder that they lost consciousness. Some even had their eardrums bleeding from the thunder's loud cry.

After 10 seconds, the lightning disappeared and the dragon was no longer present. A woman was now in the place where the dragon was. Steam emitted from her body but there were no signs of pain nor injury, rather she seemed like a war goddess in the midst of a storm. Her fey red pupils would remind one of the dragon's eyes. Her golden brown hair which was ankle length was being blown upwards by the wind. Her body was clothed in a mystical armor that seemed to breathe life. It was as if she was the storm.

The woman looked down and remarked casually, "Eh? Ikal is just sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight?"

Iroko stared collectively at the people of the surroundings. There was a deep glint in her eyes but she seemed unperturbed.

The woman and the hatchling aren't like all of the creations they made. They came from the upper heavens[1]. A world that was beyond the limits of the creators mind. This woman could be considered as both friend and foe.

Iroko and Ikal never really understood the dragons of the upper heavens. They sent a dragon each for the Lady and the Lord but these two dragons never really served nor stayed with the two. Now, after a millenia, this dragon of hers appeared.

Iroko blinked when she remembered something. She then looked at the woman, "Elle, where's Volt?"

The woman's eyes held an unnamed emotion when Iroko called her Elle. She then looked at Prime and the hatchling before uttering, "Where your husband is at."

Iroko continously stared quietly at the ribboned lightning strike.

Mind you, the lightning trials aren't usually like this. Most of the time it is one strike of lightning after another. However, a ribboned lightning[2], were lightnings that formed together making one have a false impression of bound ribbons, but they are lightnings that have this parallel-ish bond that cannot seem to strike at too different and far apart places. A regular ribboned lightning reached up to 60,000-70,000 kelvin . The combined heat of the ribbons intensifies at the center, wherein the degrees a hundred thousand fahrenheit is the bear minimum. But both women stared at this heaven sent ribboned lightning in a serene way. As if the lightning trial was a normal scenery to bask upon.

Elle looked at the Lady pensively before calmly relaying her own thoughts on the matter at hand, "This is entirely related, your acts, his..."

*Rumble* the rumbling sound of thunder engulfed whatever Elle said afterwards.

They both looked up as the lightning trial slowly grew weaker until only faint signs of light were left before finally diminishing after a second. Everything happened within just three minutes.

~At the bird's nest~

Ikal was still standing watch as he kept the seal that was only supposed to reach the whole territory of the Bird's Nest, which now expanded till it reached the whole expanse of the Botanischer Garten.

"You've changed." A whisper was suddenly heard behind Lord Ikal's back.

"Volt..." Ikal said in a calm unsurprised manner.

This reply of the Lord made Volt squint his eyes as he looked at the Lord. "You've been expecting me."

"We have been..." Ikal said as he looked back to face Volt. "Expecting the three of you."

Volt jumped away from Ikal as he kept mum and listened to his words, "It was when she touched that lightning earlier on, it had lightning traces from your dragon tribe. That's why we immediately appeared at where she was at."

Volt sighed, "The upper heavens' gods are starting a war. That war will follow the Gods of gods. You and Iroko are bound to be part of this war. And if you don't come with us to finish this, all of your creation, and even that person you are hiding will become part of this mess. Our child is here, there is no need to worry."

"We know." Iroko said calmly.

Suddenly Elle and Iroko both appeared before Volt and Ikal. Iroko walked towards Ikal.

Volt then queried, "That boy that you brought along... is he also here?"

Ikal's eyes suddenly had repressed depth, "It doesn't matter."

Iroko's eyes noticed Egon and she said languidly, "We will be leaving for a while. We will try to come back every once in a while..." When this words were spoken, The Lord and the Lady looked at one another with doubt. Iroko closed her eyes, sighed and continued, "Take care of one another while we are gone. Govern the mortal realm wisely with the other deities. Now...," she dragged the last word as she looked up to the thunder clouds. Egon, looking at the direction the Lady was looking at, saw a fireball that was falling from the sky.

"That thing falling from the sky is Prime... Get her and get out of here." Iroko ordered.

The Lord chuckled and spoke amicably, "We've been trying... ordering you to take her out of this place, but circumstances had not permitted it so easily."

The Lady glared at the Lord, the Lord pouted and suddenly held out his right hand and squeezed the Lady's left hand. The Lady closed her eyes, as if in contemplation. "Bring her with you on your mission to the mortal world."

The Lady's words hammered fiercely in Egon's mind. He shouted in protest, "My Lady!"

Iroko had a tired look. She looked at him and then said, "She can no longer stay here." There was this decisiveness in her eyes as she revealed, "This place is dangerous for her now. Never return here." She turned her back, leaned on the Lord and hugged him tightly. Hidden from sight, there was this imperceptible coldness and death pervading in her eyes as she whispered to Ikal, "Don't expect me to be merciful this time around, they want to use force. So daring, not even knowing who created it."

A deadly aura permeated from the two. All three of them could feel such intense killing intent and they were shocked for never had the Lady nor the Lord had such deadly auras around them. The next moment, the clouds rumbled like raging beasts.

[1] The upper heavens is where gods appear. Technically speaking, they aren't created, they appear, but not as a god, but as children with powers beyond what deities are capable of. They can create, reproduce, destroy, heal, all omnipotence is bestowed on each one. But they are designated by Rank. Iroko and Ikal were of the highest rank, many gods perceived them as a thorn for such responsibility to just be theirs on a silver platter was unjust in their eyes. For their was no one who was governing the upper heavens. It was a land of peace, but its peace is just like an invisible war. Some gods are the Lady and the Lord's friends, some are their enemies. Even without a governer, the upper heavens have considered the two as the Gods of gods. But they left, they just left the upper heavens and created Dou to govern. This sparked the indignation of many gods. They have been the ones inciting evil in the hearts of the already uncontrollable humans and deities.

[2] Well, the lightning ribbons did inspire me with this lightning trial, but since this is fiction. They aren't exactly like the Ribbon Lightning.

~Some scientific terms you might want to refresh on~

Convection is the atmospheric motions in vertical direction.

Thermal rising upward is the bubble of relatively warm air that rises upward from the surface.

Bouyancy is the gravitational field by virtue of the density difference between the parcel(object) and that of the surrounding fluid.

Supercell thunderstorm is defined as a thunderstorm with a deep rotating updraft (mesocyclone)

mesocyclone is a vortex of air within a convective storm. it is air that rises and rotates around a vertical axis, usually in the same direction as low pressure systems in a given hemisphere .

hemisphere is a half of the earth either north and southern hemisphere or eastern and western hemisphere

The frequency or amount of air pressure change vibration is measured in Hertz. The resulting change in air pressure created through the vibrating object is measured in decibels.Decibels, in effect, measure the loudness of a sound and Hertzmeasures the frequency of the sound.