Gatekeepers Book 3: Redemption

“You greedy bastard! You stole all the glory in the battle!” Theravor laughed out loud, still holding Draycos in his hand. “I don’t particularly mind, though; that was quite a spectacular finish to this war!”

“I didn’t expect you to be the kind of person to worry about personal glory, Theravor,” Draycos muttered, plugging an ear with one finger to block out Theravor’s ridiculously loud laughter.

Theravor stopped laughing. “You are right about that, Draycos. But you should know that you’ve drawn a great deal of attention to yourself by finishing off Vinkex with your own hands. Many dragons will be keeping an eye on you from here on out.”

Draycos sighed and scratched the back of his head with one hand. “Great, just what I wanted,” he groaned as he looked up at the stars above. “I hate being the center of attention.”

“It’s one of those problems that you can only force yourself to get used to; they cannot be managed otherwise,” Theravor told him. “I was once like how you are now.”

Draycos busted up laughing. “Yeah, I guess becoming the Dragon King would make you the center of attention, huh?” he laughed. Draycos wiped a tear out of the corner of his eye and grew serious once more. “Besides, I didn’t actually finish off Vinkex.”

Theravor looked at Draycos sharply, somewhat alarmed. “Don’t tell me that abomination is still roaming around out here!”

“Nah, nothing like that. Take a look at this.” Draycos reached around his back with one hand and pulled something out. It was a large, black egg-like stone the size of a beach ball.

Draycos plopped it down on his lap. “I don’t really remember what happened the last few minutes, but I do know that my last attack didn’t hit my mark. This thing ended up in my hand before I even knew it was there.” Draycos poked at the stone with a finger and watched it rock back and forth in his lap. “I think this is some kind of dragon egg, but I have no clue how I ended up with it.”

“This is no dragon egg, Draycos,” Theravor told the man, carefully picking up the stone between his thumb and index talons to examine it more closely. “This is the form Vinkex takes once his sealing spells fully activated. It seems like he ran out of time just before your attack destroyed him. The spells actually saved his life.”

“What? Was he about to die or something?”

Theravor narrowed his eyes and glanced at Draycos. “Do you not know what you did? I thought you just said you remembered your last attack; are you lying to me?”

“No, no, I guess I didn’t explain myself well a moment ago,” Draycos responded, shaking his head. “I said I knew that my last attack didn’t connect, but that’s it. Everything else is just a blur; I can’t even tell you what I attacked Vinkex with.” Theravor continued to stare down Draycos, who squirmed under the dragon’s intense gaze.

Theravor’s eyes widened as a sudden thought crossed his mind. “Wait, Draycos. Where’s the Orb of the First King?”

“Huh?” Draycos glanced down at his right hand, but the Orb was no longer there. “That’s odd. I know I had it a few minutes ago.” He looked around on Theravor’s palm, but it was not anywhere to be found. “Where did it go?”

Clack.

Both Draycos and Theravor turned their heads simultaneously in the direction the sudden noise came from. Standing atop the rubble of the Rogue King’s castle below was a humanoid figure. Its appearance was hidden by a hooded black cloak that covered its entire body. It wore fingerless black leather gloves, and black boots with dark grey soles.

Theravor instantly recognized the figure from the details in Vertex’s report that he had given the Dragon Council concerning what happened the night Draycos arrived. “Wait a moment. Are you…?” he started.

“Damn it,” the figure grunted in a masculine voice. “Walking silently over all this rubble is more trouble than it’s worth. I got spotted again.”

“Again?!” Theravor echoed. “Does that mean you’re the one responsible for the Orb of the First King’s theft?”

What? Draycos looked at the figure closely upon hearing Theravor’s words. He couldn’t make out any details of the face; it was too dark, and the hood covered the face in shadows from the starlight. But there was something oddly familiar about the voice...

“Guilty as charged,” the cloaked figure admitted, holding it hands up in the air. “I needed to get something important done, and stealing that jewel you dragons are so fond of seemed like the perfect way to stir up some turmoil so I could get my job done discreetly.”

“You stole our most revered artefact just so you could complete your job unnoticed?” Theravor hissed. The scales around the Dragon King’s neck rose slightly as his anger was sparked. “You caused a civil war among my people for something like that?!”

“Woah, chill out, big guy!” the figure laughed. His attitude was still easy-going despite having a big, angry dragon staring him down. “My work is pretty important. Besides, it’s not like a lot of dragons died in this fight. As far as civil wars go, that’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it?”

“That’s besides the point!” Theravor roared. “And it was not just my kind that was affected by your actions; the Gatekeepers and citizens of Draiotic City also suffered greatly! Not only that, but Draycos--!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Theravor saw something flash past him. Looking over, he realized that Draycos had leapt off his palm and threw himself at the cloaked figure.

“BASTARD!!” Draycos screamed at the top of his lungs. He held his hand out to the side, and a transparent white sword formed in his palm. Draycos brought down as hard as he could on the figure’s head. Moving in an eerie and odd fashion, the figure drew a long, thin blade from his sleeve and stopped Draycos’ attack before it found its mark. The force of the impact ruffled the cloak’s hood slightly, but the figure remained unmoving otherwise.

“Now, this is truly a surprise!” the figure exclaimed as he pressed his blade back on Draycos’, forcing Draycos down to the ground on one knee. The serrated edge of his pale green blade sent sparks flying through the air as it grinded against Draycos’ sword. “To think you have enough magic left in you to scrape together a conjuration and even have the strength to carry out an attack... this is fabulous!” The erratic stranger let out a gleeful laugh. “I saw what you did against that monster just now! The fact that you can even move now is insane! You’re truly a diamond in the rough, brat!”

“Shut up!” Draycos yelled. “Do you know what I’ve had to go through because of what you did?!” Draycos’ blade let off a smoky black aura, and the blade itself quickly turned black. Draycos glared at the figure as his eyes turned black and yellow, quickly followed by his hair turning black. “I’m going to kill you, asshole!” Draycos began pushing back against the figure, his face so twisted by rage it was almost unrecognizable.

“Aww, I’m sorry! Did you have a rough time because of me?” The figure laughed. “Sorry, but like I said, I had something I had to do. I appreciate you taking the fall for me, though; it certainly made things much easier for me when the dragons found a scapegoat to take their anger out on.”

“You think this is funny, you son of a b--?!”

At that moment, the hood slid off of the figure’s head, revealing its face. Draycos froze upon seeing the face underneath the hood, rendered speechless by shock. It was no wonder Draycos had thought the voice was familiar but could not place it: Draycos had only heard the person speak a few sentences before during a brief encounter shortly before the destruction of Atlantis City.

It was the judge that had come up to Iris and Draycos after the talent show’s award ceremony.

“Y-you?!” Draycos sputtered, finally overcoming his shock enough to speak. “What are you doing here?!”

There was no sign of laughter left in the judge’s face as he stared at Draycos through the sunglasses he wore, despite it being the middle of the night. The black man’s bald head reflected the starlight, and a small black beard grew from his chin.

“I’ve really done it now, haven’t I?” he sighed to himself, shaking his head. “The boss man will rip me a new one if he finds out you saw my face.”

“I asked you what are you doing here!” Draycos growled, pressing down on his sword even harder. “Answer the damn question!”

Smack.

The judge’s free hand came flying from out of nowhere and smashed through Draycos’ sword with no effort before slapping Draycos across the face. Draycos was sent sprawling through the air until he landed on a pile of rubble.

“I should really be going now. I need to report back to my boss and let him know what I’ve discovered,” the judge muttered, sliding his weapon back up his sleeve. He pulled his hood back over his head and turned around to leave. But he only took a single step forward before stopping and turning back around. “Oh, before I forget, you can have this back.” He reached into his cloak’s pocket and threw something at Draycos. It was the Orb of the First King. The Orb landed on Draycos’ gut. Looking closely at it, Theravor realized that the Orb had a large, jagged crack running across the surface.

“I pilfered this thing as soon as Draycos turned back in a human, but it doesn’t look like I can get any use out of it now,” the judge commented. “It looks like whatever it was that was in this thing either left or was too damaged during the battle. Either way, it’s garbage to me now.”

“The Orb...! Sir Reiverd!” Theravor groaned, distraught at the sight of the broken relic.

“That ends my business here, so I’ll take my leave.” The judge turned around and tried to walk away, but he stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a voice speaking to him.

“The... the city,” Draycos gasped out as he struggled to sit up atop the pile of rubble. The judge turned around and glared at him. “Atlantis... City! Was that... destruction... your doing?!”

“That’s your question?” the judge remarked, sighing. He took a deep breath before responding. “Yes, I was responsible for calling those fools to bomb your precious ocean city. Is that a good enough answer for you to let me leave?”

A strange sound gurgled up from Draycos’ throat as he tried to scream but couldn’t open his jaws to let it out. His hands curled up into such tight fists that his fingernails dug into his palms deep enough for blood to drip from them.

“Oh, but don’t get too upset,” the judge suddenly chuckled. “You aren’t the only survivor, ya know? I saved that cute girl with the black hair you were hanging out with at that talent show... what was her name again?”

“I... Iris is... alive?” Draycos managed to choke out. His throat constricted at the thought of her being alive and he could say no more.

The judge clapped his hands together. “Yes, that’s her name! Iris! Yes, she’s alive and well; I thought it would be too much of a waste to let a jewel like her meet the same fate I arranged for her city! But to think you managed to slip through the devastation and end up in a place like this....” The judge shook his head in disbelief. “Lady Luck certainly favors you, that’s for sure.”

Without warning, a flash of light appeared behind the judge. A black hole appeared in the light and quickly grew large enough for the man to slip through.

“Wow, my boss is really eager to have me come back now, forcing a Gate open for me already,” the judge whistled. “I can’t waste anymore time. I must be off!”

“Wait a moment!” Theravor interjected, speaking up for the first time in a while. “Who are you?!”

The judge stepped through the hole and stood on the other side as the hole rapidly shrunk. He looked over his shoulder at Theravor. “Gusano. Gusano van Oscuridad.” Gusano’s eyes narrowed as the hole shrunk to the size of a dish plate. “Your power has been noted, Dragon King Theravor Stormfang. I will be speaking to my boss about you in particular. You have six months to live your life to the fullest until you hear from us again. When that happens, my superior will take everything this world has to offer.”

“Wait!” Theravor cried.

Draycos swiped his hand through the air in the direction of the hole. Theravor barely spotted large droplets of blood fly through the air; it was the blood from Draycos’ bleeding palms. As Theravor watched curiously, a few drops made it through the hole the moment before it closed completely. A bright blue flash of light flickered out of the hole, accompanied by a bone chilling shriek that cut off the moment the hole closed and disappeared.

The drops of blood that had not made it through the hole landed on the ground and immediately burst into blue flames, startling Theravor. They were the same blue flames that the entire coliseum had witnessed during Draycos’ first match in the Prisoners’ Games. The scene of Draycos’ opponent burning up in the flames after stepping in a pool of Draycos’ blood was still fresh in Theravor’s mind, but this has not happened since then.

“D... Draycos? What did you do...?” Theravor asked, staring at the flames until they died out after a few seconds. “...Draycos?” Theravor glanced over at where Draycos was and saw the young man had collapsed atop the rubble. The sound of his loud snoring grated against Theravor’s eardrums.