Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

Without any more surprises, the portals all vanished one by one. Arthur stopped moving around while letting his pillar and his forces kill the remaining enemies here.

"So you decided to retreat… Interesting," Arthur evilly grinned while knowing that he overplayed that despicable grandmaster this time.

"Agnus," as everything settled down, Arthur finally had the time to seek for what he came here for. He didn't need to look for long, as Gege came up with the good news.

'He is kept inside the underground dungeon,' she said and a portal appeared next that took Arthur to Agnus.

"Lord," the moment Agnus saw Arthur he bowed his head so deep that it felt like he was kneeling. Arthur felt the bitterness inside his loyal man's tone.

And from his outer appearance, Arthur knew he must have lived through hell during his stay here. His clothes were tattered and the exposed parts of his body  were filled with wounds and clotted blood.

His face had deep and long scars while his hair seemed erratic. Arthur felt pain towards his loyal man, and decided to form a guard unit to make sure this would never happen again.

It was a war. He had to watch out for such occurrences more often from now on.

"C'mon," Arthur simply slashed the iron bars and broke them without a hustle, "you are free and safe to go."

"Lord," Agnus seemed hesitant and that piqued Arthur's interest.

"Speak your mind," Arthur asked in interest to hear what his genius would ask for.

"While staying here, I found an interesting thing," Agnus slowly walked and instead of going towards the stairs or the portal behind Arthur, he took the opposite direction.

He went deeper inside the dungeon and Arthur simply followed.

"They were working on something I never saw before," Agnus slowly said before reaching a wide hall where a big thing was covered with black curtain.

"What is it?" Arthur asked and was tempted to grab the curtain and see what was inside.

"Don't," however Agnus' warning shout stopped him, "I saw how grandmasters even struggled against that thing."

These words made Arthur raise an eyebrow in doubt. "You sure they struggled against this?" Arthur pointed his sword towards the black curtain, "why then I can't feel anything from it?"

Arthur wasn't bluffing. He couldn't see any form of energy coming from or swirling around that mysterious object.

However Agnus didn't answer fast. He first moved around before grabbing some dried corpses from the ground. "These are the remnants of the grandmasters exposed to it," he said before adding, "I believe it sucks away the power and life from these grandmasters."

Arthur's eyes narrowed before he touched the dried up bones. They looked like getting dried up, severely burnt down as the bones turned into some sort of charcoal like hardened ore.

"What is that thing then?" Arthur turned to the curtain with more awe and interest than fear, "is it a living thing?"

"I… dunno," Agnus shook his head, "I was brought here to study and try to control it. From the scarce words I heard, it was said it came from a place where ancient civilization lived once before."

"The originals…" the eyes of Arthur shone brightly in blue light, "that's… interesting…"

"I… dunno," Agnus looked confused but Arthur didn't need his confirmation about this.

He already knew that this thing came from the originals. That made him wonder if this object was dangerous as Agnus just said or not.

The more he tried to see anything to give him any hint about it, the more puzzled he became. 'Was the original civilization based entirely on a different concept than here?' he couldn't help but mutter.

He couldn't see any interaction between this object and world energy. 'Is it the curtain perhaps?' Arthur started to slowly walk around the object before asking:

"Have you touched this fabric?" he pointed towards the black curtain and Agnus seemed to shiver before nodding. "And? Is it a normal fabric or special?"

"Well…" Agnus seemed to be taken aback by this question, "I believe it was a normal thing."

"Hmm…" that didn't help but add more questions to Arthur than answers.

'I believe the originals used another form of energy than us,' the golden dragon suddenly said, 'and that makes them quite dangerous.'

'I never imagined they wanted to defeat us to the degree of bringing such a scary thing here,' Gege said in deep hatred.

'Ding! The scariest thing isn't this, but if they brought other things inside all the forts they control.'

The words of the system made Arthur realize something. "Damn!" he couldn't help but say in anger. His sudden curse startled Agnus.

"Get in," Arthur waved weekly towards him, "we have a lot to speak about when we are back."

"Aren't we… going back now?" Agnus felt Arthur didn't intend to return back now.

"I have… to check something," Arthur's gaze was fixed over this thing before a portal appeared beside Agnus. Agnus left and Arthur stood all alone in front of this thing.

"Can you contain it?" Arthur slowly asked.

'It's totally fine in here,' Gege said, 'I believe whatever this curtain is, it contains its energy and makes it safe.'

"Hmm… Alright," Arthur nodded, "take it in and never touch it until I give you permission."

'Sure,' Gege instantly created a portal above the object before swallowing it inside.

'What do you intend to do now?' the golden dragon asked.

'He is going to hit some forts,' Gege said in strange excitement.

'Ding! You want to test my theory?'

"Indeed," Arthur slowly walked out in firm steps, "If they brought such weapons here then I shouldn't stand idle. I have to push with everything I got and amass as many weapons as possible under my possession."

'But you don't know how to use them,' Gege said, 'or do you?'

"For now I don't," Arthur took in a deep breath, "but that damned mage won't bring something here without having a means to use it.. I will figure out how to activate and use these weapons one way or another."