Tales of a Seductress

TOAD – Chapter 95

The rest of the dragon god’s message didn’t come in so much words as it did in a flood of images and feelings. As a result, I saw the past. The room was the same, although the writing on the walls was different, and Bahamut was alive and breathing, although his breaths were slow and labored. His body could barely move under its weight, and it was clear he was on the last leg of his life.

“The humans have gotten wind of our ceremony.” A much younger, but still strong-looking Oberon spoke.

“You are not level 99 yet.” Bahamut declared in a slow, powerful voice. “This is not the ideal time to complete the ceremony. I predict only an 80% chance of success.”

“We must try now!” Oberon snapped and then lowered his head in embarrassment after earning a look from Bahamut. “I’m sorry, my liege. Please, the human army is large, and they have summoned a hero from another world. He has already killed my five strongest generals and pushed the demon realm back consistently. I’m not confident which one of us would win in battle.”

Oberon looked around nervously, licking his lips. The Oberon I had always seen was confident and self-assured, nearly to a fault. I had never seen this man before. He seemed somewhat cowardly, with just a hint of desperation in his eyes.

“You are afraid,” Bahamut responded. “You fear death. You fear your weaknesses, your powerlessness. These are petty issues. I seek to save the world!”

“I do as well! That hero knows what we are doing. He’s coming here to stop both of us. My liege, you are too weak. I don’t care about my own life, but if you die before you can pass on your power, then this world will die!” I could tell Oberon was using false flattery.

“This world depends on mana to exist. The human’s arrival was an accident, a result of our hubris.” Bahamut sighed. “If my power is lost, then this world will shrivel up and die. Eventually, even the humans will perish and the world will become nothing but ash.”

“That’s exactly what I mean!” Oberon nodded. “We need to begin the ceremony now! This might be our last chance.”

Bahamut looked up as if lost in thought for a bit. Finally, he gave a small nod.

“Very well, we will begin the transfer now, before the humans arrive.”

The vision seemed to blur a bit, and a new scene appeared. Some time had passed, as the sun was now set. There was a blue light that resembled lightning that shot out of the dragon’s chest and struck Oberon. Oberon pulsed with a blue undulating glow.

“I-I’ve reached level 99!” Oberon declared with joy.

“Good… we can take a break then.” Bahamut declared. “I need just a bit of time to rest. At level 99, you should be able to handle this threat.”

Boom!

There was a distant explosion, not too unlike the ones I had been hearing in my own time. Oberon’s face flashed with fear and then he lifted his hands. There were runes carved in them, and they began to erupt with a red light. It shot out and seemed to wrap around the blue power emenating from the dragon.

“We don’t have time!” Oberon shouted.

“What are you doing?” Bahamut roared as the lightning seemed to be amplified in strength, by the red light.

“I will become a god! No one will stop me!” Oberon’s eyes grew fervent, his silent desperation becoming far more audible.

“You must stop this! The transfer will occur in proper time.” Bahamut snapped.

“The hero already reached level 99. He has only been in this world a few years, and yet he grew more powerful than me!” Oberon snarled. “I can only face him as a god!”

“This is not what we agreed upon. If you transfer like this, I will die! This was only supposed to make me mortal. I need to pass on my dragon bloodline to a human female and continue my race as draconic demons!”

“Half-dragon god humans?” Oberon’s expression darkened. “They’d be too powerful! How could I ever truly rule this world with you still alive?”

“You planned to betray me from the start!” Bahamut roared.

“Shut up and die!” Oberon shot back.

He started to pull even more energy from the dragon. They fought back and forth, a tug-a-war, but it was clear Oberon had prepared for it and was winning. The dragon’s complexion grew weaker and weaker, while Oberon looked stronger and stronger. It was at this point that the door opened. A dozen people emerged into the room. The leading person was a man with long black hair, a thick beard, and fancy armor. His eyes immediately beheld the scene in front of him.

“We must stop his ascension any way possible!” The man pointed at the pair.

“No!” Oberon roared. “Bahamut, stop resisting!”

As the men raced forward, Bahamut locked eyes with the hero. “If you wish to stop this ceremony, you must attack me directly in my core. You must use all of your power, sacrificing your very soul.”

His words weren’t heard by anyone but the hero, but since I was seeing things from Bahamut’s memories, I also heard these words.

The hero shook his head. “It won’t kill you…”

“You will not be able to kill me. However, you can seal my power in a barrier, keeping others from having it.”

“That sounds like what you’re hoping for?”

“I won’t believe that the future of this world deserved to be in demon hands. I was mistaken. Let this world die without me!”

“Then, you’ll have to forgive me, but I have no choice!” The hero raised his sword and raced forward, jumping up and attacking.

As he did this, his entire body glowed with a powerful light. He struck Bahamut right at his center, and then the lightning previously coming between the pair dissipated. When the glowing was gone, so was the hero.

Oberon let out a roar of anger as six of the men who entered the room descended on him. The others began to attack Bahamut. One in particular, a rather young man, hacked away at the only part he could reach, Bahamut’s nether region. Bahamut stood tall and defiant as his body slowly became wrapped in stone. He stared at Oberon, who tried to defend himself from the onslaught of skills and attacks. Eventually, Oberon let out a horrified roar, and an explosion of power erupted from his body.

“He’s a god!” One of the swordsmen cried out in horror.

“No, not yet, he’s on the cusp.” A magician corrected.

Oberon turned and ran to the balcony, jumping off the end. The other men ran to the edge, only to see a massive wyvern rise, carrying Oberon away as the city below burned. Meanwhile, the petrification continued until even Bahamut’s eyes became stone. With that, the visions came to an end.

“Nothing ever comes for free.” I sighed.

The story was complex and I only saw a snapshot, but the message was pretty clear. Oberon had been fooling everyone. He had betrayed Bahamut and tried to steal his power. Oberon wanted to complete the ceremony he had started all of those years ago, breaking the hero’s seal and finally becoming a true god. There was a second message to the information. It was what Bahamut wanted me to know. To bring the children in my womb into this world, I needed to use that energy inside the dragon god.

A mortal woman wasn’t meant to bring a god into this world. It turned out that without the power of a god, the child would never be born. Instead of labor, the pregnancy would fail to complete and either I’d have a spontaneous abortion or the baby would just petrify in my body. I wasn’t even sure which would be more horrifying. Even Oberon knew this, which was why he wanted to get me pregnant before his ascension.

Yet, I had gotten pregnant by Bahamut instead of Oberon. Perhaps, Bahamut had planned this from the beginning. Perhaps, he had only seized the opportunity for revenge. Either way, the same energy that would propel Oberon from level 99 to 100, finally pushing him into the realm of the gods was the energy needed for the baby dragon god to be born in my mortal womb.

“What did you say?” Oberon asked, a bit distracted as he checked on the various runes and made sure they were working properly.

The entire exchange with the dragon god had only lasted an instant. I touched him, and then everything had been unloaded into my mind.

I removed my hand from Bahamut, as I already had received all the information he had left for me. “Nothing, my love.”

It didn’t matter what my decision was yet. Until the hero’s barrier was destroyed, no one could access that power. Although it looked like a simple statue, no mortal weapons had the power to even cause a dent in it. On the floor were various shards of weapons and signs of explosives that had been used over the years and failed to reach that power. Oberon eventually settled on this method.

In a short time, there would be a blood moon, and as it turned out, a blood moon was the time in which blood magic was at its most potent. The entire city became the altar of sacrifice to harvest enough blood to destroy the barrier and release Bahamut’s power once and for all. At that point, Oberon would absorb the power and become level 100. Although, from the information Bahamut sent me, there was no guarantee he’d succeed.

Had the ritual occurred while Bahamut was still alive as intended, then it likely would have worked. However, with Bahamut dead, the divinity’s potency dropped. It was possible that it no longer was enough of a catalyst to complete Oberon’s ascension. If that happened, his divinity would be wasted and this world would die. However, the child he put in me didn’t require nearly as powerful of a spark and would almost certainly work.

It wasn’t completely about revenge for Bahamut. Bahamut’s goal had always been to pass on his power and then continue his progeny. It was no wonder he took the shot as soon as I offered it. After realizing my true potential, Bahamut realized he could obtain everything he wanted.

Yet, the decision was still mine. I could let Oberon continue to rise in power, or I could try to take the divinity for the baby inside me. It put me in a difficult place, and nothing in Bahamut’s info dump told me how to win against Oberon. If I took the power in front of Oberon, he would likely kill me no matter what excuse I made. Perhaps, he might hesitate to torture me for information, but it wasn’t like the power would be going to me. I wasn’t even at a high enough level to take it. It’d go to my child, and once he realized it wasn’t his, he’d kill me just as quickly.

As for allowing him to become a god, if he failed it’d all be for nothing. The world would eventually end as the mana dried up, or something like that. I didn’t know if Bahamut or the hero were correct. Would the world end, or would it convert into an energy world, as the hero suggested? If I helped Oberon succeed, he’d likely realize the kid inside me was Bahamut’s child, and he’d kill me then too. A small part of me had thought that Oberon might be amused or even delighted that I was birthing the dragon god. Now, I knew that he had never been the dragon god’s friend, but just a means to an end, like me.

“It is time.” Oberon declared, cutting through my thoughts like a knife.

In the end, I still didn’t come up with a solution. I had no loyalty to Bahamut, but then again, I only had a tactile agreement with Oberon, one I already broke. When it came to this world, I had no desire to save it. I certainly didn’t favor the humans, but no love was lost for monsters or demons either. In other words, my decision needed to be what was best for me. Forget about what others wanted. I was the demon queen. What did I want?