“NOOO, HELIOS!!!”
“FATHER!”
Iori, Madeleine, and Ophelia all ran towards the pierced body of the dragon king, but were thrown backwards by a pulse of violent energy.
Jadaka was the source of this unprovoked attack; as he pulled his accursed blade from his father’s chest, he felt power like nothing he’d ever held before flood his being.
The power that had made his father so infamous throughout this world was now being transferred to him, and he could not have been more overjoyed.
“What have you done?!” Iori roared.
As a response, Jadaka held out his hand and brought his brother towards him without lifting a finger.
Jadaka held his brother by the neck and smiled sadistically at his helplessness.
“Go on, brother. Strike me again with that power you are so proud of.”
Iori squirmed in his brother’s grasp but realized that his power was somehow morbidly inferior.
This man who he had just sent flying a few moments ago now literally had his life in his hands.
“No? Have you lost your fight? That is truly a shame.” Jadaka said pitifully.
He tightened his grip on his brother’s neck and broke it with minimal effort required.
He dropped the body onto the ground right beside the still breathing Helios.
The gaping hole in his chest was one thing, but seeing his eldest son be killed right before his eyes was another level of grief.
For the first time since the passing of his loving wife, he wept at the loss of a family member as he lie on the ground powerlessly.
“Iori, my son!!” Ophelia cried.
“Jadaka, what have you done?!” Madeline asked.
The second prince remained unfazed by the heartbreaking scene of these two women crying and he wiped his hand across his pants.
“Oh? How odd to see the two of you mourn men that you haven’t cared for in years. You both make me sick.”
SMACK!
Using the flat side of his bony blade, Jadaka struck both women across the face and sent them clattering towards the ground.
Uncaring of their pitiful whimpers, he turned his focus back toward the two men lying in the dirt.
Grabbing both of them by their long hair, he sprouted his own massive wings and shot through the glass ceiling of the garden, leaving the two women behind in the fiery garden, uncaring of whether or not they would survive.
–
It was a relatively cloudy day in Antares as if the heavens above were in a somber mood from everything that they had seen.
Jadaka landed in the middle of a largely populated military base in Antares, and screams of surprise ensued before they were drowned out by his own powerful voice.
“SOLDIERS OF ANTARES! TODAY I AM HERE TO DECLARE TO YOU A CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP!” 𝚘𝚟xt.𝑪𝑂𝗆
Holding the corpse and the half corpse up into the air, he gave everyone in the street a good look at the broken men in his hands.
The soldiers were so shocked that their mouths simply fell open and they dropped whatever they were holding onto the floor.
The living calamity Helios was being held in the air by his long silver hair and was only barely alive.
The golden dragon had been bested in combat by one of his very own children.
It was so unbelievable they wanted to pinch themselves to assure they weren’t dreaming.
“AS YOU KNOW ONLY THE STRONGEST ARE FIT TO RULE IN THESE LANDS!” Jadaka reminded.
“I HAVE PROVEN MY WORTH THROUGH TRIAL BY COMBAT, AND AS SUCH YOU ARE ALL SUBJECT TO MY LEADERSHIP!!”
The soldiers looked at each other uncomfortably.
Irregardless of their feelings about the change in power, there was nothing that they could do.
Helios had killed the last dragon king to claim his position.
And the one before him had done the same.
Antares was a dog eat dog kingdom, and that was something that would never change.
Even though Helios was loved by his people, they couldn’t even mourn him in front of his successor.
The army of dragonewt fell onto one knee, their heads lowered towards the ground.
“WE GREET KING JADAKA, THE NEW RULER OF ANTARES!”
The king smiled manically and sent a chill down the spines of all of his supposed soldiers.
“Your first orders are simple. Prepare for war.”
The already tense mood in the atmosphere was further compounded by this insane demand.
Jadaka wasn’t interested in a coronation or a way to solidify his rule, he just wanted to go out and begin his first conquest.
It was an unbelievably dramatic turn of events.
“M-My king, if I might ask, who is the enemy..?” One soldier asked shakily.
“Samael, and all of the lands within it’s grasp. We will start by cutting off the head of the beast and then burn everything they touch to the ground!”
By now, so many of these soldiers wanted to quit and change career paths.
Jadaka had chosen to seize the lands belonging to the fabled destroyer, and they were certain that they were all going to end up paying the price for this decision.
The might of the scarlet emperor and his armies were nothing short of legendary, with some stories being akin to tall tales.
Whether it was his devastating physical abilities, unorthodox and frightening magic, or mastery of armed and unarmed combat, it all made him a terrible force to be reckoned with.
And someone whom absolutely no one wanted to come into contact with.
Jadaka sensed the resolve of his soldiers waning and he threw his brother’s cold body out into the crowd as a show of force.
“DO YOU DOUBT MY MIGHT?! WORRY NOT WORMS, YOU NEED NOT COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE HALF BREED, HE IS MINE AND MINE ALONE!”
After hearing that, the men began to feel just a bit better.
If Jadaka was capable of reducing the golden dragon to such a pitiful state, then surely he would be fine against the destroyer as well.
“No more complaints? Good then.”
Jadaka flapped his wings and rose up into the air, leaving the corpse of his brother behind.
“We set sail in four days. Mobilize all of our forces.”
The new king flew away still holding his father by the hair, his soldiers remaining locked within a stunned silence.
Their eyes couldn’t help but drift towards the body of the first prince who was lying in the dirt, discarded like trash.
–
“This… this can’t be happening.”
“Helios… no..”
In the Stormcaller territory, Hajun had been delivering some important documents to Tiamat when the pair of them received news of the change in leadership.
Needless to say, they were both so shocked that they very nearly fell onto the floor, and spent several minutes locked in disbelieving silence.
How could this have happened??
The world’s most indomitable and indestructible force was suddenly defeated not by an outside threat, but his very own son!
Both of them had been around Helios and Jadaka enough to know that the second prince was nowhere near as powerful as his father, so how was he able to defeat him??
And now that there was no one to stop him from claiming the throne, what was going to become of these lands in the future?
“I… have to get out of here.” Tiamat said shakily.
She rose up from her chair and opened a sliding door to her private quarters where she immediately began packing.
“Go where? You are a dragon lord, you can not simply forsake your duties just because-“
“That is exactly what I can do! I will not stay here and be forced to serve that monster!”
After seeing Tiamat react so strongly, Hajun started to feel like maybe she knew some things about the new king that everyone else wasn’t privy to.
“And if you care about the princess, you need to ensure that she gets out of here too.” she added.
This caused Hajun to arch his brow in surprise.
Yara was younger than Jadaka and significantly weaker, so she did not have a claim to his throne.
It made sense for him to kill Iori as he was the eldest, but there would be no real reason for him to kill his younger sister.
“You believe he will kill her just because he can?” Hajun asked.
Tiamat shook her head bitterly, remembering the new king’s untold depravity.
“If only his intentions would be so simple… Just get her as far away from this place as you can.”
Hajun stared intensely into Tiamat’s back like he was waiting for her to elaborate further, but she had no such intentions.
Eventually, he let out a sigh as he ran his hands through his graying hair.
“It matters not, the princess is not here. She and her husband have been with their son’s family for the past five days.”
Tiamat paused as a glimmer of hope shone within her eyes.
She recalled her fellow lord Seras and her husband, and a small idea began to formulate in her mind.
“That’s where I’m going to go… He should be the only one capable of stopping that monster.”
“What? You’re going to Samael?”
“Yes I am, haven’t you been listening?” Tiamat finally finished her preparations and opened the door to her balcony.
Just before she left, she paused and looked at the old man sorrowfully.
“I know you and the king were close so… if you have any hope of avenging him, then you should also come with me. This may be the best chance we have for retribution.”
Hajun wrestled with the idea of leaving behind his home.
He had grown up here, found friendship here, had his children here.
But the longer he thought about it… he realized that he had done most of those things beside Helios.
A man whom he thought was dead at the hands of his own family.
Suddenly, it felt easy for him to make up his mind.
“Alright… but we will return.” Hajun stood shoulder to shoulder with Tiamat and looked regrettably at the city below.
“…You’ll have to get on my back if we’re going to make it in time. Old age has made you slow.”
“It has not!”
“We don’t have time to argue about this!”
“Fine!”
Hajun placed his hands on Tiamat’s slender shoulders and looked like he was regretting this decision already.
The two of them leapt out of the balcony and Tiamat changed into a large black dragon with yellow stripes running across the length of her body.
Moving as fast as the speed of lightning, she had left Antares entirely and was soaring over the sea in only a few minutes.
Along the way, Hajun’s mind was fraught with uncertainty as he lamented over the loss of his oldest friend.
‘Worry not, Helios… I will give my life to see that you are avenged and that none of this goes unpunished.’