Chương 14: Astarch

Yoong retracted his white tiger summon and stood over Gozen's ruined body.

"You severely underestimated me," he sneered.

"Did you really think you could beat me with those mere clouds of yours?"

"No, Yoong." The voice carried down from above.

"You severely underestimated me." Yoong's head snapped up. Gozen hovered high over the wreckage, unscathed, sprawled across a recliner made of clouds with his feet kicked up on a matching plush vapor footrest. He filed his nails without so much as glancing at the carnage below. Yoong looked back down. The corpse at his feet had already begun to unravel. Flesh and bone thinned into a curl of white mist, drifting away in the wind.

"You didn't blow away my clouds, Yoong," Gozen called down, inspecting his cuticles.

"I simply moved them out of your view so I could teach you a lesson you could see for yourself. Now accept this mercy and just tell me where he is." Fury twisted across Yoong's face, a vein bulging at his temple.

"You dare mock me? Mercy? You think you can show me mercy?" Yoong launched skyward, streaking past Gozen's cloud-bed in a blur. Bone snapped and reset beneath his skin, his spine stretching vertebra by vertebra as iridescent scales rippled outward to swallow his human shape whole. His body kept lengthening, kept twisting, until a new silhouette hung in the sky: a serpentine beast in deep blue and turquoise, four clawed legs unfurling from its flanks, and a long tapered tail lashing the air behind it.

An Azure Dragon. The beast threw its jaw wide and roared, a sound that rolled outward and dragged charcoal storm clouds into being overhead. Rain came down in sheets as it drew ambient mana into a churning blue sphere before its mouth. Then its jaw unhinged, and a pressurized beam of water tore free, streaking toward Gozen where he lounged below. Gozen glanced up and shook his head, almost pitying.

"I don't think you understand the full scope of my class. Otherwise you wouldn't be foolish enough to turn my own affinity against me." He tossed the nail file aside and raised one hand. The beam froze mid-flight, water suspended. A flick of his finger sent it twisting into a violent spiral, then collapsing inward into a churning whirlpool. Steam hissed off the surface as the whirlpool thinned and dissolved into the air. But Gozen wasn't finished.

He held his grip on the vapor, drawing it tight, compressing it until it hardened into something solid. The vapor reshaped itself under his will. He pressed it flat into two identical squares, then drew the rest into rigid, straight bars, bending what had been soft and formless into something hard. One square went beneath the dragon as a floor, the bars rose around its perimeter, and the second square dropped down to seal the top. A cage. Forged from cloud.

Yoong thrashed inside, talons raking uselessly against the hardened vapor.

"Now that's a catch!" Gozen threw his head back and laughed.

"I wonder how many Quants you'd fetch if I sold you to your own black market!"

"Release me at once!" the dragon bellowed, straining against the bars.

"Or face judgment from the Astarchs—" If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. ENOUGH. The word cracked across the heavens like a thunderclap. White light split the storm clouds open, and lightning speared down to strike the center of the cage. The bars burst apart in an instant, dissolving into scattered mist. A figure dropped through the rift, wrapped in a yellow aura that seemed to carve its own spotlight out of the storm.

He looked to be a man in his fifties—silver hair cut short, the sides and back buzzed clean. His robes snapped in the wind, and a pair of pure white wings beat against the rain to hold him in the air. Mikael. He was one of three pillars of the Astarchs—the iron-fisted rulers of Astoria—responsible of keeping order and balance across the world.

"Domestic squabbles," Mikael declared, his voice rolling across the sky, "are settled behind closed doors. Not paraded before the populace!"

"Sir!" Yoong thundered, dipping his enormous head low.

"This man stormed into my establishment and struck without provocation! I demand restitution!" SILENCE. This time it wasn't a suggestion. An invisible force clamped Yoong's massive jaw shut, cutting the rest of his protest off in his throat.

"The matter is settled, Yoong. You shall depart, and I will administer the appropriate punishment for Gozen's actions."

"Ye… yes, Your Justice," Yoong stammered. He shot one last venomous glare at Gozen before turning around and beating his wings back toward his headquarters.

"This one is humbled to be in your presence, Your Justice," Gozen said, mock sincerity dripping in his words. He dropped back onto his cloud recliner and laced his hands behind his head.

"You dare disrespect me? Have you forgotten your place?" Mikael's voice cracked like a whip. KNEEL. The command rang out, absolute. Gozen's body betrayed him, control ripped from his own limbs. He was torn from the recliner, knees slammed onto the cloud platform, head forced down into a deep bow.

"You have no right to be this brazen! Initiating a battle between Kaisers in the heart of the city is pure madness!" Gozen forced his head up and rose, hands lifted in mock surrender.

"He's the one who started it."

"SILENCE!" Mikael snarled.

"For a man over two centuries old, how do you remain this immature?"

"Who started it is irrelevant—I will be the one to finish it. Have you forgotten your pact of loyalty? Every action of yours reflects on me and the Astarchs. You are a tool, Gozen. Nothing more. So start acting like one."

"My apologies, Your Justice. Or should I be calling you master? How shall I serve you today?" Gozen rolled his eyes, sarcasm bleeding into every syllable.

"You and I both know you didn't come down here just to referee me and that glorified lizard." Mikael descended onto the cloud platform, then loosed restraints of light at the backs of Gozen's knees, driving him back down to kneel. A fist closed in his hair, yanking his head back to force their eyes to meet.

"I could have you executed this instant and find another dog to wear your leash," Mikael whispered, his face inches from Gozen's.

"Consider yourself fortunate you're still useful to us. But know this—after I have used you up like the rag you are, I will personally see to it that you are disposed of." A suffocating aura tore out from Gozen's core and swallowed his body whole. He surged upright, white energy shattering the light-restraints at his legs before they could tighten any further.

In one blur of motion his glaive ripped free from his dimensional ring and into his grip, the blade hissing through the air until he stopped it a hair's breadth from Mikael's throat. Mikael didn't flinch. He didn't blink. A wide, unsettling grin spread across his face instead. He clasped his hands behind his back and leaned deliberately into the blade until the edge bit skin and drew a thin line of blood.

"Go ahead," he said.

"I'm sure you haven't forgotten about the consequences." His smile widened, baring far too many teeth. Gozen wrenched the glaive back and roared, a raw, guttural sound, then swung again. Only to stop the blade inches from Mikael's face, same as before. He exhaled long and slow, surrender in the breath. The glaive dissolved back into his ring, and the aura receded into his core.

"Smart decision. I didn't think there'd be anything besides muscle up in there!" Mikael chirped, planting a finger onto Gozen's temple and shoving his head away. He produced a silk handkerchief, dabbed the blood from his neck, and studied the stain with mild disinterest.

"I will forgive this little tantrum of yours just this once, as the risk of your next assignment requires your full attention." He folded the handkerchief and tucked it away.

"You'll cross the desert, heading far to the east. Your target is the guild master of the Sand Oasis. Do not fail me."