Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 833: Muted ()

Dragons were beasts of unmatched honor. It was as sure as the blood that ran through their veins, the heart that beat beneath their rib, the scales that lined their bodies or the fire that forged their souls.

But occasionally...there were exceptions. Once in a generation, a century or longer.

There were those born...different.

If men were accepted for who they were, why were those born different hated, judged, simply for daring to be set apart?

Humans had many brave men, and just as many cowards. Many great men, and just as many failures. Why were all dragons bound to the code of honor?

A code for and by which they had been enslaved to a weaker race.

What even is honor?

For to be different...is true supremacy.

~Asrig

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A shudder ran down Neveah’s spine. It was one thing for her dreams to be haunted by a long dead king, it was another thing to find herself reliving his writings, even in this moment.

Like he was etched into the crevices of her mind, she couldn’t shake him off. Couldn’t get away from him in any reality.

Her fragmented thoughts strayed without her control, fuelled by the rage and uncertainty that had taken root, harnessing every darkness she knew of and those she didn’t.

And she wished her thoughts would lead her anywhere else to stay calm than where it was. But somehow, the melancholy of Asrig’s writings, the depravity of his mind, his dance with madness...it was grounding.

The cave Everon had described came into view and as Kaideon landed, Neveah didn’t wait for his shift, she leapt off and dashed in.

Inside, the temperature immediately rose by a few dozen degrees. There were burns and scorch marks on the cave walls.

It was obvious a dragon had resided in it up until recently. But at this moment, all that was left was signs... and no Verothrax.

Dante and Estelle were nowhere to be seen either. And neither was Jian.

Neveah stormed out, shaking her head slightly to Kaideon. Verothrax wasn’t here, and it was maddening.

She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, wanted to believe he would never harm Xenon or Jian, but with each passing moment, she grew more uncertain.

Verothrax... she knew nothing about the shadow dragon, but the fact that everything he touched came to ruin.

But even if he ruined everything else, she wouldn’t... couldn’t have him ruin this one thing.

Not Xenon. Never Xenon.

"They can’t have gotten far." She said as they took flight once again.

She sensed Kaideon’s concerns, his mind brushed against hers and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t conceal her state of mind from him if she tried to.

If every dragon in the world turned on them, her father was the one person who wouldn’t.

Neveah squinted, the closer they got to the barrier, the harder it got to see ahead. The air rippled, portraying a distorted image, like looking through a glass.

As Kaideon shot past the strange phenomenon, an ear piercing shriek reverberated through the skies, seeming to come out of nowhere. Like they had crossed into a different world entirely. Neveah’s ears popped.

The horrifying sound didn’t reach Dune castle, but was distorted until a certain point to the barrier.

Neveah understood when the barrier came into view. She hissed beneath her breath at what lay ahead.

The pulsing barrier had become visible in a silvery glow, a phenomenon that happened mostly when it was under attack.

And it was.

A wave of black slowly swallowed up the barrier from the other side. At first, Neveah couldn’t tell exactly what it was. It was hard to think straight with the unending shrieking.

She couldn’t even hear Kaideon clearly in her mind. Only picking up bits and pieces of what he was saying.

An ache blossomed in her temple and she could practically hear the blood rushing towards her ears. Her sensitive senses were strongly overwhelmed by the sound waves.

Kaideon banked sharply to the left, maneuvering away from the surge of sound waves, but that didn’t do much to relieve the pressure building in her ears.

Whatever this was, it was disrupting every communication channel. And as Neveah sighted a familiar maroon scaled dragon lighting up the barrier with flames alongside the dune patrol, she understood why they had lost contact with Dante and Estelle.

She wanted to call out. Demand to know where Verothrax was, or Jian. Ideally, both.

But they hadn’t even noticed their arrival. Because they couldn’t hear anything through the shrieking sound.

She gritted her teeth as Kaideon shot for the barrier. The closer they got to the barrier, the wave of black became visible and it wasn’t a mist or anything like the miasma at all.

Rather, it was a hoarde of miniature, scaly creatures that looked like overgrown bugs. There wasn’t just a few dozen. But thousands. They rapidly crawled up the barrier, piling up on each other.

’Forlorn’ Neveah realized in dismay.

The creatures charged, utterly unfazed by the magic backlash pulsing out of the fully restored barrier. Hundreds were instantly burned through by dragon fire, there were more to take their place.

They latched onto every spot, with even more of them climbing higher and higher up the barrier.

The creatures already latched on to the barrier emitted visible hoops of gray sound waves from their toothless mandibles. The waves slipped right through the barrier, growing wider the farther they went.

The creatures couldn’t get in. But their sound waves had no trouble getting through and upsetting the hearing of every living creature within proximity.

What was worse, the waves cut off at a particular distance. Beyond that point, there were no traces of it.

Neveah squinted her eyes. Sure enough, the city guards had tolled the bells before retreating to protect the city. But that sound wouldn’t reach Dune castle or Dune city.

No one was aware of this attack but the dragon lords at the barrier and the city guards on the city wall.

And before backup would arrive, the Fae within the lighthall may lose hold on the barrier.

’Flames can only keep them away for so long.’ Her wolf thought to her.

’Take me closer.’ Neveah thought to Kaideon.

He didn’t hesitate, his wings cut through the wind, elevating them above the other dragons repelling the beasts with flames.

Being so close to the barrier, she could feel the strength of it. The magic of the Fae weaving through and reinforcing the strength of the barrier.

But, the shrieking creatures multiplied by the second. And the sound waves wouldn’t return.

The barrier would hold. But if the sound waves spread into Dune City. While dragons could withstand the effect, the citizens would stand no chance.

The realm of Forlorn had only just begun releasing its horrors. And it had finally chosen the easiest entry point, the breaking point of the world.

That meant Beoruh was close by. In Dune territory.

And Jian would be wherever he was.

It made sense. Had the attack on Xenon been to lure them here for what they discovered in Ebonhollow? The box they didn’t even know how to open was the reason for sending Xenon close to death?

Dark sorcerers were unreasonable, it was a natural characteristic of having no soul. But this... was too far.

She had been determined to put an end to Beoruh’s lunacy, but now... she was desperate. She felt an urgency to end him blossom so deeply within her soul, it overpowered every other emotion, suppressed Asrig’s voice and dulled her senses to the shrieks.

All she felt was rage. The truest rawest kind of rage, and a deep eagerness.

Today, it would end.

If he had come...he would not leave alive. Neveah had never been more certain of anything than she was of this fact.

"I have to get through that barrier." She murmured, summoning the arcane within her veins.

It surged to answer her call, curling around her fists in tiny golden wisps, and feeding the rage growing within.

She wasn’t certain what she wanted to see happen, but she concentrated on the barrier, hands outstretched.

The arcane surged even faster, swiftly answering her call. A golden light exploded out of her outstretched hands, hitting the barrier with a force that made it tremble.

The shrieking ceased. Like all sounds in the world had been muted. Maybe it had.

She couldn’t tell... she didn’t know exactly what she had done. But she knew she had done it right.

The golden light spread down the length of the barrier and the creatures latched onto it disintegrated in a burst of magic embers.

The silence seemed to terrify the hoarde and they scurried back into the depths of the canyon their numbers. Those who weren’t fast enough were burned by fire or golden light.

The dragon lords noticed her then. She could see Estelle’s lips moving, but no sounds came out.

She didn’t need to hear to know. Jian... he was on the other side of the barrier.

So was Verothrax. And whatever other horror awaited.