Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Heroes of Midgar-Rise ❯ Prolouge ( Chapter 1 )

This story is mine, and mine alone.

 

Prologue

 

Lightning flashes across the sky; followed by the deafening sound of thunder. The rain began to fall as well, slowly at first, but then gradually began to pick up until the simple storm transforms into a downpour. Another bolt of lightning illuminates the sky, as it does it reveals a tower. Sitting in a nest of mountain is a giant stone tower standing two miles high, reaching towards the sky like a finger pointing to the heavens. On top of the tower is a spire, and at the top of the spire a statue of a dragon standing proudly, wings full spread in majestic beauty, its tail runs the entire length of the tower as it wraps around all the way to the base. This tower is the home of the Dragon Knights, the guardians of the continent of Midgar. In the Hall of Gathering of the Dragon Knights tower, events are nervously unfolding. The hall is lavishly decorated with luscious red carpets, pictures of dragoons of past decorate the walls along with a map of the continent of Midgar that covers the entire back wall, above is a giant chandelier that provide light along with the torches along the wall. In an almost complete circle are seven beautifully crafted marble chairs, they form a circle around a wooden podium where those who wish to address the council would stand. On normal days the Dragon Knights would gather in their dining hall where they would discuss the day's events, however on this night they are discussing matters grave importance. The Dragon Knights are each sitting in their seats calmly discussing the matter at hand, each Dragon Knight is wearing similar armor of a steel breastplate with a long sleeve chain mail underneath, bracers along with leather gloves, greaves, and boots. The mood of the room is one worry, and something that would worry the Dragon Knights would terrify any other person.

 

"How long has Nicholas been gone?" Nixie asks

 

"It has been nearly fifteen days since we last heard from him." Barrett says as he idly strokes his beard.

 

"Should we begin to go out and search for him?" Karla asks as she laces her fingers together in nervousness.

 

"I'm afraid that is not possible, there are many situations arising here at the capital that require our full attention." Ehren says

 

This statement catches everyone's attention; the first one to speak is the youngest dragoon Jarvis, "What exactly are you referring to? The temper tantrums of the Senate are usually best ignored until they feel like actually talking, instead of their usual whining." This statement causes the hall to fill with the mirth of laughter.

 

Ehren chants several short words, he then points to the map of Midgar, a spot on the map began to glow brightly so the other could see it, the place that is glowing is the small country of Ironoe, the continent's single most exporter of metals, the most important being iron. If trouble is brewing with Ironoe being at the center of the conflict, it could very well de-stabilize the fragile balance between the three great countries as they seek to gain control of the precious resources in Ironoe.

 

Before the Dragoons could begin to debate anything, the deep voice of Alphonse, "What had happened in Ironoe to cause the current situation?"

 

Ehren let out a sigh of frustration, never a good sign before a person begins speaking. "I am not sure exactly what events transpired, but we have recently learned that there has been a regime change in Ironoe. The new leader of the country, a man name Brandon Braeden has overthrown the previous government. From what the Senate has been able to gather it seems he is still working towards solidifying his position, however at the current moment he is in control of the capital, the mines, as well as every major city, though a few villages refuse to accept his rule. While they are hardly a threat to Brandon's regime directly, they are causing him much grief as the villagers have become nests for rebels that are raiding other villages loyal to Brandon, as well as harrying his troops as they try to bring what he is calling a rebellion under control."

 

"Well, now I understand why you have been returning from the Senate meeting looking more ragged than usual, so tell us, what does the Senate plan to do? While I am sure they would like situation to resolve itself, I imagine some pockets in the Senate are getting a bit lighter each day this conflict is unresolved" Jarvis said while pulling out his pipe in preparation for a much needed smoke break.

 

The mirth returns for a second before the mood dampens once more as the weight of the situation begins to be felt by all those in the room, though they all generally avoid the world of politics they are from ignorant of it . They are well aware of how deep corruption in the Senate ran, of the one-hundred senators who make up the Senate there are only a handful whose hands are completely clean, the corruption in the rest of the Senate ranges from small things such as simply taking bribes in return for favors, to the ones who go as far as to kill their rivals in order to keep their power. Despite attempts by the many of the past king they have never been able to either to entirely purge the Senate entirely of the corruption, nor keep it away when new senators assume the positions. Over the centuries the Dragon Knights have done what they can to help with ever festering problem, but the most that any king has been able to be done is pass a law that allows a member of the Dragon Knights to attend Senate meetings.

 

Barret loudly claps his hands startling everyone, as well as breaking the ever depressing chain of thoughts. "So, how is the Senate proposing to respond to the situation?" Barret asks is he once again begins stroking his beard, nervous habit he has developed over the many years he has been a Dragon Knight.

 

Ehren swallows hard, his nervous habit when he is getting ready to tell them something they did not want to hear. "There are three motions on the table, the first being the obvious of sending an envoy to assess the situation, and take action based on the envoy's report. The second is a little more extreme, it suggests that we align ourselves with one of the two factions, in exchange for higher quantity of resources, as well as reducing amounts sent to other countries. As bad as this suggestion is the third is by far even worse, it suggests that we ignore the treaty of Licame, and simply occupy Ironoe." Ehren says sadly, his eyes drooping to the floor.

 

 

 

The room is quiet, so quiet that a needle would probably have sounded as if a suit of armor had fallen. This move that some of the senators are proposing is not just dangerous, it is simply ludicrous. The treaty of Licame, a treaty signed by all countries both big, as well as small, states that Ironoe is to remain neutral in all conflicts, in return Ironoe agrees to trading contracts with each country. The treaty has kept Ironoe safely out of wars for the last two centuries, the biggest reason being the fear that if one were to attack them, then every other country on Midgar would get war against them. The fact that the Senate is willing to risk disregarding that fact is a terrible sign, if they were to do it, the wrath of every country would be brought down upon Isra.

 

 

Alphonse turns towards Ehren with fire in his eyes. "And does the Senate expect us to assist them in this madness? Well they have another thing coming if they do, especially since no one, not even the king himself has the power to command us!" Alphonse shouts.

 

Everyone mutters in agreement, although the Dragon Knights live in Isra, which they have long before Isra was formed, neither the king nor the Senate have any power to command them to do anything since the Dragon Knights have pledge to support any country in need. It is because of this safety guard that has prevented countries from either rushing to war, or allowing Isra to bully other countries with the threat of releasing the Dragon Knights on them.

 

Ehren rubs his temples slightly before he begins to channel his unique power into the room. The reason Ehren is the one chosen attend the Senate meetings is because of his unique power of empathy, which comes in handy for subduing the wild emotions of his fellow Dragon Knights when they begin to lose it. Or when he is in a room full of vipers, and needs to try to figure out who is the most dangerous. It is only a matter of moments before each of the Dragon Knights begins to feel Ehren's power working on them, as the tension leaves both the room, and their bodies.

 

With the atmosphere brought back to the calm state they need Ehren begins to retract his powers. With his task now done Ehren returns to the matter at hand, "Now that we are all calm, let us get back to the matter at hand. Even with Nicholas missing he would not want us to neglect our duties. With the situation at the beginning to spiral out of control we must get ahead of it, and stop it quickly. Jarvis, tomorrow you will head to Ironoe, we need you to assess the situation, and see if there are options to end it peacefully. The rest of us will keep an eye on things here at the capital, as well as do what we can to stop this path of madness. It is getting late let us adjourn this meeting.”

 

As one they all agree, and one by one they each leave the hall. After Nixie made her way out of the chamber Ehren slumps in his chair. The day had left him emotionally drain, and during the meeting in the Senate his power showed him so much malice that it seem to fill the entire rotunda. Ehren stays in the same position before he says, "I know my friend, there will be many dark days ahead." Ehren sighs before leaving the hall to go to his chambers for some much needed, and well earned rest.

 

 

 

 

The night pass with little incident, and morning came faster than anyone would have liked, on top of the Dragon Knights tower Jarvis waits patiently with his arms cross. Jarvis stands there in the same armor from night before except now he is also wearing helmet that cover his entire head save for the Y shape opening for his mouth and his eyes. The sun is nearly over the horizon when he puts on a brown travel cloak; he then places his war hammer in its sling, and then puts his left arm through allowing the strap to run diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip.

 

"You are procrastinating, you know this correct?" says a voice, Jarvis smiles.

 

"I know Ryuu, but that hardly means I want to go. Ironoe is many leagues from here, which means instead of relaxing after a nice training session, I will be spending today, all of tomorrow, as well as the day after flying." Jarvis says.

 

"Just get going all ready, the more time you stand here whining, the more days you will spend flying. Ehren will not be please if by the end of week you are not even in Ironoe."

 

Jarvis smiles at the usual banter between himself, and his best friend is always fun. But now, it was time for work. Jarvis closes his eyes, his muscles suddenly began to bulge, his canines become elongated, and from his back two web wings fluidly sprout out. Jarvis opens his eyes, the pupils are now slits. With the transformation now complete Jarvis steps off the tower, his free falls for a couple seconds before flapping his wings, his descent slows, and then stops as he begins to gain altitude. Eventually Jarvis is high above the tower, as he enters the clouds above he begins to orient himself in the right direction before chanting a spell. When he reaches the end of it Jarvis suddenly begins to shoot across the sky at high speed.

 

 

It is nearing mid-afternoon when Jarvis encounters a problem. After eating a couple bowls of stew for lunch, as well as resting for a bit Jarvis resumes his journey. Suddenly Jarvis begins to feel a bit dizzy, he begins shaking his head furiously in order the shake the mental cobwebs, then whole world begins to spin as a wave of vertigo overtakes Jarvis, this causes him to begins to fall from the sky. Jarvis tries to correct himself but he cannot tell which way is up or down. Jarvis is not sure of what to do; he is falling fast with no way of knowing which direction to start flying in. Suddenly Ryuu begins chanting, the vertigo begins to lift allowing Jarvis to see where he is falling. He begins to desperately flap his wings, he is able to avoid death from the fall, but he is not able to avoid crashing in the hard ground of the woods he was passing over. Jarvis crashes in the ground with a soft thud; he picks himself up and begins dusting himself off as he leans against a tree for support.

 

"Ryuu, what the hell happened?" Jarvis shouts, he is just now starting to feel well enough to move away from the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

"We were hit with a spell, a damn good one at that. The spell hit you, but it did not trigger any of the wards I keep up. Whoever cast this either is one of hell of a spell caster, or knows more about Dragon Knights than people should." From the tone of his voice Jarvis could tell Ryuu is worried, and whatever could worry Ryuu definitely has Jarvis worry.

 

Suddenly Jarvis senses a presence behind him, whoever it was suddenly appeared out of nowhere as Jarvis did not sense this person's presence before. Jarvis turned around to see who it was that managed to get this close to him. What he saw made him gasp in surprise. The person is a well over six feet tall making him a few inches taller than Jarvis, nothing else about the man features could be seen as he is wearing a black skull looking helmet that cover his entire face like a mask, the rest of the man's body is cover by heavy looking black plate armor, with spikes on his spaulders, giving him much protection, and a intimidating look. However it is not the armor that is the cause of Jarvis's gasp, rather it is the two web wings attach to his back. Whoever this man is, he is definitely a Dragon Knight, and his stance tells Jarvis he is looking for a fight.

 

"Who are you?" Jarvis shouts

 

Jarvis's assumption about the fight is confirmed when the man summons a fireball. "Not that is matters to you since you will be dead, but if it will help you move on to the afterlife, my name is Jaeger." Jaeger throws the fireball faster than any arrow could hope to match. Jarvis sidesteps easily to his right while making a half circle with his right arm extending it forward, several lightning bolt shoots at Jaeger in quick succession, but they hit an invisible wall before they hit him.

 

"He is protected by a very powerful ward. I will attempt to break the ward, but while I am attempting to do so you should use your hammer."

 

Not one to be ignoring Ryuu's advice Jarvis un-straps his hammer, and assumes his fighting stance. Jaeger raises his right hand; it begins to glow brightly with fire until his entire hand is being engulfed by it. With a leap both warriors begin sprinting towards each other, they are almost on top of each other when the man thrusts his hand forward attempting to grab Jarvis's face. Jarvis bends his knee while leaning forward; he easily dodges Jaeger's attack and pushes his hammer forward to strike him in his abdomen. Jarvis assume the attack would score a solid hit, however his assumption is very wrong.

 

Jarvis's attack is block by Jaeger's left gauntlet; in fluid motion he begins to spin his body around Jarvis, before Jarvis can react Jaeger elbows him in the back of the head. Jarvis tumbles to the ground off balance; he then begins to feel a burning sensation in his back as Jaeger tries to drive his flame engulfed hand through his back. Jarvis feels the searing heat of the flame as it attempts to burn through his cuirass. Jarvis quickly puts his hand on his chest; he quickly channels his lightning through his armor. Jarvis's attempt succeeds as Jaeger pulls his hand back. Jarvis quickly picks up his hammer, he turns around bringing his hammer around in a swinging motion, and however Jaeger already jumps backwards out of his range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaeger's hand is still on fire as he pushes it forward, suddenly a stream of fire shoots towards Jarvis. The attack catches Jarvis off guard forcing to enclose his wings around him for protection. Despite the wards that Jarvis uses to protect himself he can feel the fire begin to burn his wings, it won't be long before his wings will be burnt to the point of uselessness. Quickly assessing his options Jarvis begins to chant a spell, the ground begins to rumble for a quick minute before a geyser shoots out of the ground blocking the flames. Despite the flames being block by the geyser Jaeger presses on with his attack, suddenly the ground began to rumble again, however this time it is under his feet as a second burst from the ground engulfing Jaeger in a column of water. With the fire attack now over Jarvis begins to shape the water, it soon forms into a giant ball, gathering his power he shoots two bolts of lightning from his hand to the ball of water.

 

Jarvis's attack goes on for several minutes, surprisingly there is no sign of resistance from his opponent, but before Jarvis could speculate he suddenly felt a surge of power from the top of the geyser something shot out. High above the forest a blue fireball floated, eventually the fireball faded revealing the man. Jarvis stood rooted to the ground in complete shock. "Ryuu, what was that? Have you ever seen a blue fire like that?" Jarvis asks Ryuu mentally shakes his head.

 

"No, I have never seen fire so powerful that it is able to withstand so much water. The only conclusion I can think of is that this blue flame is a unique power, much like your lightning power, which means he is even more dangerous than either of us anticipated, I won't bother telling you to be careful since you will be reckless regardless," Ryuu says.

 

Jaeger seem to be waiting for something, he remains in the same spot above Jarvis as if he is waiting for something to happen. Suddenly he waves his right hand left to right. Jarvis is confused by the gesture until he hears explosions to his right; he turns to see an unsettling sight. The blue fire, it is making its way towards at a very fast pace, faster than one would expect. Jarvis quickly leaps into the air, as the fire passes underneath him some of it shoots out of the ground towards him, but he is able roll to his left, and easily dodge it.

 

Jarvis begins to orient himself when the Jaeger appear right in front of him, acting solely on instinct Jarvis swings his hammer in a overhead attack, one that will cause tremendous damage if it hits, however Jaeger seems to anticipate this, Jarvis hears him chant a quick spell, There is a quick puff of black smoke, and in his left hand a round shield appears. Jarvis's hammer hits the shield hard causing a brief spark, the man again repeats the previous spell, only this time he summons a scimitar in his right hand. Using all of his might Jaeger shoves Jarvis backwards, as Jarvis is falling backwards, slightly off balance, Jaeger dashes forward attacking. Jarvis is unable to respond as Jaeger easily scores two hits on his torso, he is going for a third hit in the form of a stab, but Jarvis is able to deflect this with his hammer, and hit the man across his face with a left hook.

 

 

 

 

While Jaeger reels back from the left hook Jarvis assess the damage, the two successful attacks struck his torso from shoulder to opposite hip forming an x pattern on his chest. The attack not only pierced his cuirass, but also the chainmail under underneath, just light grazing his skin. The wound stung quite a bit, but is nothing he could not ignore; his partner was a different story.

 

"Let me out, whoever this man is he is far too powerful for you to handle. I know you do not enjoy relinquishing control to me, but please we must hurry before it is too late."

 

Jarvis hates many things; one of them is when Ryuu is right. Relinquishing control of his body even to whom he trusts the most is not something he enjoys, but no other alternatives are presenting themselves. Reaching deep into his himself Jarvis once more began to transform. Jarvis's body began to expand, surprisingly instead of instead of destroying his armor, as well as his clothes they seem to simply disappear within the expanding flesh. Jarvis's body steadily expands, as it does his face becomes longer as it stretches into a strong muzzle, his skin changes from smooth flesh in to scales, a long slithery tail sprouts out from the base of his back, lastly his feet, and hands change into claws. With the transformation now complete Jaeger is able to see what Ryuu looks like. Ryuu is over a hundred feet in length with a wing span to match; his scales are almost pure silver save for the tinge of blue in them. Ryuu's face is grim visage of anger, smoke drifts ominously from his nostrils as he snorts before taking a deep breath, as he exhales he lets loose a stream fire that could scorch whole armies.

 

Jaeger simply waves his right arm, and a wall of blue fire appears in his defense. Ryuu watches as his attack slams into the blue wall, when his attack fades the wall is still standing. Although it is possible to break through his defense with the correct spell Ryuu has lost all patience for that kind subtly, instead he gather in his mouth a ball of raw magical energy, when it is as big as his mouth can hold he shoots it towards the blue fire. The ball crashes in the wall, scattering the flames easily.

 

The wall of fire spreads like a crowd of people before their king, when it fully spreads it reveals the man chanting a spell. Ryuu attempts to listen as so he can devise a counter spell, however he does not recognize the language, it like none he has ever heard of. Suddenly the man shouts, "Let my master's power flow through me!" From his hand a tendril of black energy shoots out, it wraps itself around Ryuu's neck digging its fanged suckers in to his scales. Ryuu screams in pain, but not from the bite, but rather from the feeling of his life force being forcibly taken from his body.

 

`We must get out of here,' Ryuu shouts in his mind.

 

"I know, but how? I can use my transport spell but we'll probably just take the blood sucker with us, plus I don't know if we have the power to make it back to the tower." Jarvis responds

 

`Whether or not we have the power is simply a risk we will have to take, and do not worry about this monstrosity on our neck, I should be able to pry it off for a few seconds.'

 

While Jarvis begins chanting the spell Ryuu begins to build his own power. Much like with his earlier attack this one will simply be raw magic, neither fancy, nor subtle. Jarvis is nearing the end of his spell, Ryuu release the magic, his entire body begins to shimmer brightly, from Ryuu's body a pulse begins to emit, and it works in repelling the foul creature from his neck. The creature is push back several as Jarvis say,"Transpotoe." Ryuu begins to glow brightly, than vanishes in a blink of an eye.

 

The creature seems to not realize that Ryuu is gone as it moves around trying to find its target. Jaeger lets out a twisted version of a laugh before sucking the creature back into his hand; he turns, and stares in the direction he needs to go now.

 

"Why did you allow them to leave Jaeger? They could cause us trouble down the road." a voice said.

 

Jaeger laughs again. "I know Dracul, but it cannot be helped. I thought the weakling had exhausted too much of his power to try that, guess they were more desperate than I anticipated. Either way I will get them eventually. Now let us leave this place, and continue on with our mission."

 

Without waiting for a response Jaeger flies in the direction of his target, the target is one of high importance. The target is the capital city of Virote, the best place to plant his seeds of evil, and watch them bloom into plants of destruction.