Suddenly, a loud bang shattered the silence of nature. The huge shadow of the dragon tore through the clouds, the snow and ash falling down in his tracks.
His eyes shone, and his wings crackled with lightning. The dark clouds devoured the sun in seconds, submerging everything into darkness. With a fit of anger, he turned to face the group of mortals trembling below him.
Most of them were dressed only in simple travelling clothes, but there were more than a dozen paladins in the heavy plate armours, colourful capes, and glowing enchanted hammers.
Around them was nothing but thick forest and green pastures. The grass and trees creaked and moved with each flap of the dragon’s crystalline wings.
“Stop right now, mortals!” The voice burning with anger shook the ground.
The tremors perpetrating through the soil under their feet and the surging wind oscillating between freezing cold and burning hot made some humans stumble back and fall to the ground.
Their bodies shook, and their armour clanged.
“Cease your actions, dragon! Demons are invading us, and we must fight to protect our own! You can’t forb….”
He couldn’t finish before a wave of wind smashed into him and sent him flying into the distance as if he were just a dry twig, even with his heavy armour, his glowing hammer leaving a trail behind him.
The rest of the paladins raised their war hammers, only to get slammed to the ground by the air as if the gravity grew ten-fold.
“What do you think you are doing? Are you poaching my people? They are part of this kingdom, which is mine!” The dragon’s mind raged at poachers and traitors under him.
‘No, they can’t be left alive.’ In his eyes, they were all traitors who decided to abandon his kingdom and fight for their churches. It was an insult to him.𝑜𝗏xt.𝗇t
“The demon arm….”
“I don’t care, mortal! Fight them by yourself, but don’t steal and brainwash my people to fight for the bidding of your gods!”
His eyes turned to his pale and shaking mortals, “Even if the entire world caught on fire, this kingdom is under my protection, and it will stay strong! But, it will be now without you. I hereby sentence you to death for crimes of treason and defection!”
‘They are all radicals; they grabbed their weapons the moment the churches called. If they did it this time, they would do it a second time, potentially against me.’
The mortals fell on their knees, praying and murmuring, but none begged for their lives. Instead, their eyes were filled with anger and fanaticism. Even further reinforcing the dragon’s thoughts.
‘They are a lost cause. Keeping them alive would be like keeping a murderer with a dagger by my side.’
Lightning flashed in the clouds and split the sky in half. The massive bolt of blue and gold lightning, wildly sparking and crackling, descended upon the group of wanna-be crusaders.
With an ears-tearing bang, the lightning struck amidst them. The long, branching arcs of electricity cut through their lines, bodies, and armours like the tentacles of a legendary Kraken.
Their smouldering, charcoal-black bodies collapsed to the black, burning ground.
In the blink of an eye, they all died.
But it wasn’t over, as it alerted the dragon of the harsh reality, ‘I was focusing on outside enemies and internal political foes, but I missed and ignored the most problematic group. The regular citizens believing in the gods that will turn my enemies.’
He realized how much he had underestimated the courage humans could draw from their faith and fanaticism.
‘Will they just attack me without care for their lives the moment the gods mark me as their divine enemy?’
The dragon knew the only solution to the problem was time, ‘I can’t easily turn the current generation. But I should focus on the next one. I need to secure my kingdom and isolate it from the poisonous outside influences while slowly, step by step, shifting their beliefs and values.’
He shook, knowing that if he went into war against the gods now, his own kingdom would turn into dust under the flames of civil war.
The two brightly glowing rails of lightning formed on both dragon’s sides, and an electrical spark jumped between them and his semi-metallic armour.
The loud sonic boom bent the trees and sent ripples through the sea of grass as the dragon accelerated.
‘This was just the first group. There are more of them.’
POV ???:
Players quietly stared into their interfaces, looking like they were staring into nothingness. The entire inn was deathly silent, the usually cheerful atmosphere nowhere to be found in the inn.
Finally, a shaking voice broke the silence, “W-what if there will be a war?”
“My friend, that would be the better scenario, as after the war, all the crimes will be deleted.”
None of them had a clear consciousness. All of them robbed someone or stole, and many even killed someone at some point. They committed enough crimes to end up in jail for at least a decade.
They just wanted to have fun, but now they were criminals. Their shaking and unbelieving cries for a positive reply resounded through the crowd of players.
“Will we be trialled? They can’t throw us into jail… right?!!”
“I-it is just a game. Right?! Right?!” The reality hit them hard, and the cold words of the dragon were still resounding in their ears and minds, refusing to leave them alone.
“I am a murderer, no different from those sitting in jails….”
“No, you aren’t, we didn’t know… we are innocent!”
If the war came, they could die, but if it came to diplomacy, it would be almost as bad as there was no guarantee that the governments of Lorenia wouldn’t want to punish them, send them into jails, or maybe even execute them in more severe cases.
“We might be criminals! But we also helped them! We are even now dying to stop the demons! That must be enough to wash away our crimes!”
Suddenly a burst of laughter reverberated through the room, making everyone pivot to its source, “Hahaha, you are all wrong! We are currently still immortal. We should strike them first and eradicate them while we still have the advantage!”
A single-player in the outfit of black, wyvern scales sat in the corner, his snake-like eyes staring at the rest of the players.
“That is Goro, the famous assassin!”
Some of their eyes lit up in hope, while most stared at the person in shock and disgust.
“Are you insane, dude? How should we fight against primordial giants, vampire lords, and the four balance races? Even their regular members are always at least elites or minibosses?”
The assassin shook his head, with a massive grin plastered on his poisonous face, “We don’t have to… didn’t you hear the dragon? They were already on the earth. They will likely not even care, as we don’t care when ants fight other ants. We just need to kill the fellow humans!”
Most players shook their heads, refusing to do something like that either from fear or simply because they had their morals.
“That is murder! Mass murder!”
“No, it is no different from genocide…”
“Angels will smite us!”
The psycho, Goro, just grinned at them, with disdain in his soulless, snake eyes, “You are all idiots wasting our best opportunity to strike. We must fight while we still can’t die! Let’s go! There must be more like-minded players out there!” The man gestured at the crowd and stood up.
He swiftly walked to the exit, and a small group of players rose from their seats and followed him.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon’s shadow moved over the countryside as he flew above the towns, villages, and fields. The hundreds of small dots froze upon sighting him.
His golden eyes looked over his kingdom, searching every nook and cranny for the sneaky fanatics trying to sneak out of his kingdom.
‘It is so peaceful now, but it could all change in an instant.’
Only now did he realize he had made a mistake, ‘I should have let them go, but I was just too angry and disappointed… no, I should have even encouraged them to go. The worst fanatics would filter themselves out and die without me needing to even lift my claw.’
The dragon flapped his huge wings, sending gushes of winds across the countryside, with a new target destination already plotted in his mind.
‘I can still do it. I will encourage and maybe even arm the local churches for their holy war. I will send them out to their death with all the fanfare. Let as many people join them.’
He no longer saw them as poachers; instead, he now saw them as someone weeding out his fields for him and for free.
“Hahaha!” The dragon laughed like a maniac, knowing how perfect his plan was.
He would eliminate the worst fanatics while establishing the image of a benevolent ruler. On top of that, he would crush any potential suspicions of him working with the demons before they even appeared.
‘Multiple birds with a single strike!’
He had killed one group before, but it was just a single one in the middle of nowhere. Making him sure they will just blame it upon rogue players.
‘Scapegoats are always easy to find.’