Crowned - 15 | Crash Course

 

Kairo led them to the laboratory on the west end of the Helmire Castle. It was a black tiled tower on the outside, standing upright at an awkward angle to give an illusion of a natural hilltop. 

Kairo led Elvira and a reluctantly dragging Kaeo to the ground floor room, the doors of which opened when he pressed his right palm over it.

A dimly lit room greeted their sight. Elvira felt a chill run down her spine and covered her chest to rub her hands over her arms. The walls were lined with wooden shelves which displayed strange organs floating in bubbling glass jars. Thin white smoke lurked around the shelves, as if guarding the objects at display.

From the farther right, Kairo picked up a mauve vial and held it out for them.

“Do you remember this?”

Elvira nodded, recognising the vial’s contents instantly. “Linch blood,” she stated.

“Indeed!” Kairo exclaimed, “It’s for the research we were supposed to do five years ago! I halted it so that we could complete it together,” he chirped, grinning ear to ear.

Kaeo rolled his eyes, “So that is your research error that you have been droning about for the past years?” he threw a disgusted look at Elvira.

Kairo’s grin turned sheepish. Elvira glared at him.

“What if I were dead and gone for good?” Elvira asked, “Would you just shut the project down?”

“What! No! of course not! We did this because I knew you were alive,” Kairo reassured as he took the vial and led them out of the first room and into a second room on the ground floor.

“So, what’s it about?” Elvira asked.

The new room seemed mediocre with its plain white walls and the floor covered with elongated tables and wooden chairs as its dominant aesthetic. Kairo placed the vial on the first table in front of the door and banged a hand over its top. Instantly, a three-dimensional projection appeared over it.

“Linchs may be E tier Creatures but they are classified under LLL by size. Their sheer mass and ability to utilise the poison they consume make them a predatory species. I want to combine their genes with that of a dragon and create a blood sucking, poison consuming, lethal, end-of-the-world-harbinger dragon!”

“To conquer the world,” Kaeo added.

Brows raised, nostrils flared and mouth pinched on both ends, Elvira uttered, “Obviously.”

“Nothing makes conquering territories easier than a dragon’s invasion!”

There was an ecstatic glint in his green eyes that made him look like a perfect villain as he spread his arms in front of a holographic projection of a dragon over the tabletop.

“And pray tell, how would you acquire the dragon gene considering they have been extinct for about—four centuries and counting, now?!” Elvira demanded, trying to make sense of the idealistic plan.

“Where do you think you can find a dragon skull?” Kairo countered.

“The black market…”

“That’s not how villains work!” Kaeo snapped at Elvira’s reply.

“At the Church Dianthia, of course, those who protect Virae’s direct bloodline more than their own flesh and blood!” Kairo supplied.

Elvira’s brows threatened to jump off her forehead and walk away. “What do you mean a skull; how do you know that it is not the skull?!” she intentionally lowered her voice to a whisper as she shouted.

“Well, who’s to say that your Church is safekeeping the real religious artifact – unless we prove it otherwise?” Kairo giggled.

“Having the skull’s genes would be better though, naturally,” Kaeo supplied.

Elvira’s brain wandered off to history classes back in school.

The skull in question would be the head of the first dragon on their planet Wreath. There was a time when shadow-Earth only harboured two species, the originals being the Dracionious, or Dragon-kind and other being Dinorious, or the Dinosaurs, who were warped onto Wreath after a meteor hit the real-Earth.

The sudden appearance of the Dinorious species was considered as an Act of God, obligated by the Stars, and suddenly, the dominant Dracioniouses not only had competition but also a war of resources at hand. Every giant creature took immense space and Wreath could only host so many.

Amongst the angry dragon-kind, there was one dragon who was able to transform into a human owning to his patience, high affinity to magic and insane spell-crafting skills. He was Virae, the first mage on Wreath who was later worshiped by the Dianthia supporters.

During the Great Evolution Era (F526 – F528) Virae taught the transformation spell to his fellow dragon-kind because he found it more convenient to live as a human. Suddenly, tables were turned and once again, the Dracioniouses had an upper hand when it came to lasting survival. They fell into a leisurely life, calling themselves Blossoms, and discovered the pursuit of sexual pleasures.

Thereafter followed the Sin Era (F527 – F777) until the great curse Morana, created by Virae, wiped the majority of the Dinorious population. The genocide was frowned upon by the Stars and the Heaven. Instead of the curse affecting the rest of the Dinorious population and killing them off, it caused mutations amongst them, altering them and birthing into existences a myriad of Creatures, who were now known as Creatures of God.

The Church of Melantha supported the Creatures and their rights whereas the Church of Dianthia worked in line with Virae’s principals of eradicating all Oddities and establishing Blossoms' sovereignty over Wreath.

It was just a part of Wreath’s extensive history which Kairo lent in order to conquer the world.

“But if we’re caught…” Elvira said through gritted teeth.

“Then we don’t have to go into an elaborate monologue to reveal all our plans, okay?” Kaeo snorted.

Elvira rolled her eyes at his lack of seriousness. Kairo was not proposing just petty villainy anymore, no, he was proposing global religious artifact theft! Elvira wanted to be of help, truly, but at what stake? She never had any qualms about religion or the politics of her world. She could care less since she was rejected by the very people who birthed and raised her. Still...

“How are we getting in?” Elvira asked, licking her lips.

“Now we’re talking!” Kairo exclaimed and clapped his hands. As he separated them, a sheet of paper appeared between his fingers. He held onto it by its corners and Elvira squinted at the blue lines and realised it was a map.

“Where did you get a map of the greatest Church in the world?” Elvira sniffled with admiration.

“I punched it out of saint,” Kaeo stated.

“Diabolical.” Elvira seethed.

“He was drinking at a pub and harassing the barmaid, I didn’t even have to try hard,” Kaeo scoffed.

“Are you defending yourself so I don’t judge you?” Elvira snorted, a laugh edging on her face.

“No, I am stating facts!” Kaeo snapped.

“Let us focus on the task at hand, shall we?” Kairo clapped, “Burn the image into your brain!”

Elvira nodded aggressively and stared at the blueprint, not understanding a thing. Her nose whiffed a burning stench and before Elvira could realise, the paper held between Kairo’s fingers burst into flames and ashes.

“I – I couldn’t even look at it!” Elvira complained.

“Don’t worry,” a jade magic circle appeared over Kairo’s hands which he flicked over in Elvira and Kaeo’s direction, “Your mind will remember it when you’re there.” He explained.

“What?!” Elvira cried.

“Or, just eat this ash if you don’t trust Kai’s magic and the map will appear before your eyes.” Kaeo supplied.

“Are you trying to kill me again?!” Elvira snapped.

“Oh my, was it so obvious?” Kaeo drawled.

“Elvi, don’t worry, that is exactly how the spell works. The ash isn’t harmful at all!” Kairo clarified before Elvira could jump on Kaeo and start pulling his hair.

“Okay,” Elvira nodded. Somehow, Kairo was naturally trustworthy.

“What! You trust him with the same thing and not me?!” Kaeo exclaimed, eyes widened with surprise.

“He’s better than you,” Elvira shrugged.

Kairo flicked his finger and created a wall in between them before Kaeo could lunge at Elvira and indirectly harm himself.

“Now, you must know that Dianthia is a Church so, obviously, it is surrounded by Holy Grounds. There are anti-teleportation wards so we cannot have an easy entry and only natural magic would work within the grounds. Which means no deceptive magic like illusions or creation magic like this wall would work there. The grounds are blessed with divine magic so, spells which have a cause-and-effect relationship with nature would be our only escape.”

Elvira raised her hand.

“Yes?” Kaeo asked, containing a genuine smile at her scholarly antics.

“What is divine magic? Aren’t there only four types?”

“Ah, to work at a church or any holy place you have to pass an exam full of ethics and religious morals and stuff. If you pass, you are hired and taught the Divine Script, it’s a dead hidden language unlike the usual spell writing languages like the Conjuror Runic I use and the Stryn Script used by Alchemy Type Mages. Spells are written in order to satisfy a need, right? That need, depending on the recipient, changes the medium, which is the language.”

Elvira nodded, frowning.

“Like the shape-shifters of Kalmia, they are able do it so easily because they have their own Beast-Script spells. Languages are passed down only to those with abilities,” Kaeo clenched his teeth as he peeked over the wall to mock Elvira.

“No wonder I did not know about them,” Elvira huffed and shoved a middle finger in Kaeo’s face.

“Yeah, the more languages you know, the more powerful of a mage you become! Conjuror Runic lends magic from the world and uses it for a cause. Stryn Script lends magic from the mage and uses it in a cause. That’s the main difference between the two basic ones.” Kairo explained further.

“For example, creating a sword out of thin air would require a Conjuror Runic based spell and crafting a sword and then giving it the ability to throw fire, water or air blasts would require a Stryn Script spell,” Kaeo dumbed it down.

“What is this? A heist plan of the villains or a crash-course in theories of magic?” Elvira scoffed. Though her face feigned nonchalance, her eyes sparkled with gratefulness.

“Right! Now, how do we get inside?” Kairo asked.

“We blast the grounds, send in the troops and steal that head like it always belonged to us.” Kaeo grinned.