25 Talking With The Dragon

Robert walked over to the mossy rock where Cicero was sitting, perhaps some ancient monolith that had been swallowed by the wastes. The dragon was looking out at the satyrs as they regrouped and rejoiced. Robert sat down beside the dragon and they both waited and watched as the satyrs began to head towards the Stellae Murum.

"It will be a long journey for them. It won't be easy for them to get there." Robert said, still looking out at the satyrs.

"Indeed. A pilgrimage of sorts. They won't be there for at least a week." Cicero also looked out at the satyrs instead of at Robert.

"I'm not a god. I don't want to be one, I'm just here to kill one."

"Then what? If you actually manage to kill the god of light then what will you do next? Rule over the world?"

"I never had a purpose before. I had some plans, but never a real reason to do anything special. I have that now. What's the point in looking any further?"

Cicero turned its head to look at him. "You are the strangest villain that I've ever met."

"Amn't I the only villain you've ever met?"

"You're still the strangest."

The pair turned away from each other and looked at the departing satyrs in silence. Only when the strange goat men were out of sight did Cicero speak again, still looking across the wastes.

"I won't apologise for killing them. You will need to learn to be ruthless if you want to win."

"I need to learn to kill people who don't know any better? I might be trapped in a game, but that won't stop me from using the board to beat the referee's head in. I'll play by my rules and so will you."

The dragon's head snapped around again. Looking at Robert with wide eyes and an incredulous look on its face. "Are... are you threatening me? Seriously? I could eat you right now! Give me one reason why I should listen to you and not kill you for what you just said."

"Because that... would be boring. And I know that you despise being bored. That's why you're going to listen to me, because otherwise -whether you kill me or I stop 'adventuring' with you- you'll get bored." Robert said with a wide smile on his face.

The dragon -that towered over Robert- just sat there stunned, before finally giving a small nod. "I take back my previous comment. You're not the strangest villain I've ever met. You're not even the strangest person or the strangest living thing. You're just... the strangest."

"I think that's one of the first compliments that you've given me, seems like the beginning of a... strange friendship." Robert winked.

"As long as you keep being this fun, I'll take you up on that. Just remember, I warned you about what happened to the last people who tried to show mercy. It's your job to keep your people safe, and my job to keep mine the same." Cicero said, the dragon's tone becoming grim at the last two sentences.

Robert and Cicero got to the Stellae Murum after two days. Robert had been cut down to ten days at the Stellae Murum.

"So, where's our next target?" Robert asked.

"How about the ogres? That or the berserkers. We need to bolster our armed forces after all." Cicero replied.

"Let's go with the ogres then. They should be easier to handle."

"How very delusional. I love it!"

"What's that meant to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing. This is gonna be fun." Cicero said, smiling.

The ogres were used by the church in secret. They couldn't have the commoners know that they weren't following their own tenets. The ogres had originally lived in a harsh, tropical area, but the church had overrun them and used the populace as slaves for mining. Some were left in their original location so that the church could collect them when they repopulated -as they had many times before- and the church simply told the populace that they couldn't get into the jungle, like many of the harsh climates.

There was a large complication however. The mana crystal mining outpost was filled with soldiers, over a thousand of them. Not too mention that they would be far more diverse in their ranks, with many types of priests. The camp was composed of two main sections: the guard outpost, and the mines. If the pair was able to free the ogres, then they might stand a chance at taking out the outpost. But the tunnels were too small for Cicero, so Robert would have to go alone. He would try to break the chains holding the ogres, eliminate the guards without killing them -much to Cicero's displeasure-, and convince the ogres to help attack the camp. While he did that, Cicero would be creating a massive block of ice so that it could be unleashed onto and used to seal the crater the camp was built in after Robert freed the ogres.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Cicero asked.

"We're hardly in a good situation as is. How much worse can it really get?"

...

"Much, much worse." Robert said, looking over the ogres that had escaped with them and the extremely angry guard captain that was now chasing them down.

...

Robert arrived at the camp within the day and started sinking into the living wastes by moving the abyssal elementals within them out of his way. Robert continued until he reached a point where the green was interlaced with pulsating veins of abyssal energy. Down there, the wastes seemed to resist his attempts to move it and change it to his whims. Luckily, he was far enough down to reach the outer layer of the mana crystal mines. The crystals blocked Robert's mana vision into the caves and they were surrounded by enough soil that Robert couldn't see normally either.

"Looks like I'll be going in blind." Robert moved the mana in a large crystal growth so that it formed a loop and became magnetised. There weren't any major changes originally, but as Robert pushed the mana faster and faster, the nearby crystals began to respond in kind and a few looser growths began to shift. As the mana became a blur in Robert's vision, spiderwebs of cracks spread across the crystal growth, until it burst and caused a chain reaction of violent mana explosions that caused a cave in near the top of the mines... and gave Robert a way in.

Robert summoned his mana armour before taking his first step into the caves, and -still blinded by rock dust and lingering mana- was surprised by two man sized pickaxes striking him in the chest. Struck unaware, Robert couldn't hold his ground and was sent flying for many metres before crashing into the endless wastes.

Suddenly, Robert could hear a voice in his mind. He felt totally calm. "Calm, relax, rest, sleep, let go, drift off." the voice said, the veins of abyssal energy pulsing in time with each word. But Robert needed no sleep, he burned his way out of the closely knit greenery that had a disturbingly... fleshy feel to it. He could hear the voice scream as he burned the greenery.

Rising from his place in the greenery and hearing voices through the dust and smoke, Robert summoned his spear -looking like condensed waves of rippling blue flame- and listened to the ogres speak.

"What the hell was that?" a voice said.

"It just broke in to a prison designed to hold Fomóiri, I would stay vigilant and not refer to it in the past tense."

"Should we alert the others?"

"Hmm, I'll keep watch. Go get Octriall, and get back quick."

Robert heard footsteps receding and the smoke soon cleared to reveal a one eyed giant, wearing rags and holding a pickaxe that was relative to the three and a half metre tall creature. Its single eye followed him and it held the pickaxe at the ready.

"Who in the hell are you? And why are you here?" the 'Fomóire' inquired.

"I'm here to free you. I have a city that's in desperate need of inhabitants and I assume that you probably don't want to be here very much." Robert said calmly, he held his hands behind his back -flaming spear dismissed.

"How do we know that you aren't tricking us?"

"What? You think that you'll end up in a worse situation than the one that you're in now?"

The Fomóire bristled at that, but his anger seemed to crumble into defeat after a moment. He could hear the voices of the paladins outside, clamouring and already pulling at the debris from the cave in.

"Grrr, fine. Come with me."

The Fomóire led Robert through the winding passages of the mine. On the way they met up with a group led by the second man who had attacked Robert and another Fomóiri. The hulking creatures explained to Robert that the Fomóiri in the mines were led by the three brothers: Elthra, who was the oldest and the one that Robert hadn't met yet. Octriall, the youngest, who had gone to get help. And Etholl, who Robert had conversed with.

Robert told the brothers that he was called Tome and that he was the villain. After a few wary glances and shared looks by the brothers, they led Robert to a part of the mine that was dry of crystals.

"Why are we here?" Robert asked.

"To see our leader." Elthra said, placing his hand on the stone and lowering his head as if praying.

As Elthra looked up, the stone curved inwards and a set of stairs led further into the earth. Following the new pathway, Robert and the Fomóiri reached a room filled with mana a crystals. A throne made of mana crystals lay in the centre of the room and a seven foot tall youth was lying on it. The youth had long black hair and olive skin. He stared at Robert from across the room with a bemused expression.

"I assume that you're the cause of the commotion above?" he asked.

"Well, I suppose that you aren't wrong. I've come here to offer you a deal." Robert said.

"Please, continue." the man's bemused expression gave way to interest.

"I can offer you a way out of here and safe haven once we leave."

"The Fomóiri are masters of the earth, we can leave any time. What is the safe haven that you offer?"

"A deserted city. It lies at the edge of the Stellae Murum. I need help defending it."

The youth stroked his chin and stared in the direction of the cave in before returning his gaze to Robert. "I'm Bres, the first Fomóir to learn magic. There aren't many who would face the church, there are even less who would need help and use a deserted city, and there aren't any that hold the mantle of lich. That means that you, are either a new lich with a hatred for the church or the villain." Bres looked at Robert expectantly.

"I'm the villain. And my name is Tome. So, are you accepting my offer?"

"To be perfectly honest," Bres said as the entire cave was filled with blinding light "you aren't giving us much choice."

Bres had the three brothers round up the rest of his race and told Robert to come with him. Bres and Robert headed towards the remains of the cave in and the source of the light. The rocks were being cut through by using a small laser to cut a circle out of the middle of the rocks. Robert took a moment to note how incredibly cliche it was before asking Bres what his plan was.

Bres cracked his knuckles and told Robert.

"We're going to kill every soldier that comes through here. And then... I'm going to get a hot chocolate." Bres said, smiling.

Just as a massive block of ice rolled over the camp and slid to a stop.