<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

Mermul is back, but Lord Thurr isn't helpless either. (Contains more violence)

Icon art from the Fardon reference by Billie/FeatheryFlukes

=================

Chapter 23 - Confrontation

"K-Kill Lord Thurr...?" Narkath looked terrified.

"Kill him," Mermul confirmed. "In whatever manner you see fit."

"So this is how it must be!" Thurr snarled. "Fool... for all your tricks, you forget! I wield a bracelet of invulnerability... and I would not pick a champion I could not defeat myself, should the need arise! Behold my strength, and cower!"

"Hold, Narkath," Mermul said. The larger dragon glanced back at his master, with an expression of barely-concealed relief. "While Thurr might consider you expendable against an invincible foe, I would not have you die in vain a second time. But if anything should 'happen' to our illustrious Lord's invulnerability trinket... then he knows what could follow."

The red dragon-lord looked unsettled, but snarled nonetheless. "Very well, you have made your point. You are not helpless. Nonetheless, as one invincible dragon to another, you must admit we are at an impasse. Come, let us reason together."

"I agree completely," Mermul looked pleased. "As I said earlier, we really should talk this out. But I don't think you're going to like it."

Fardon glanced at Lord Thurr's proposed map of the realm and grinned widely.

"Fardon knows," Mermul smiled, pointing at the dragon knight. "I will offer my terms, but you'll like them about as much as Lord Varl will like losing the Disputed Territories."

"...You want me to surrender to him?!" Lord Thurr puffed out furiously, wings outstretched. "Face execution by that human-loving upstart and his toadies?! You've lost your mind!"

"No," Mermul said sharply. "You will not face the death penalty. I will shield you from that, after you have agreed to go into exile.
"This way, you will keep your head, avoiding the violent fate which you have earned. You may have angered the Great One enough that He has sent me to stop you, but at the end of the day, you are still a fellow dragon. I would not have you suffer the torments of Hell without a chance to mend your ways.
"Therefore, so much as I find your actions repulsive and deserving of a public decapitation, I will still endeavour to protect you, in the hopes that you may yet find a path to salvation."

"Protect me?!" Lord Thurr screamed. "You think I need protection from an upstart ball of fluff like you?! I am ten times your age! I was your master! Your overlord! I made you into what you are!"

"You made me into a psychopath," Mermul said coldly. "You had me defy the wishes of the Great One, disappointing our own creator. And yet, I can still be merciful, if you agree to step down as ruler of this realm."

Lord Thurr roared and blasted a thick wall of flame at Mermul's face.

"Insolence!" he yelled. "You dare barge in here and demand to be made Emperor!? I have bitten the heads off others for much, much less! I should tear off your wings for such an insult!"

"No. I never said that," Mermul replied irritably. "I do not seek to rule - for that is also against the rules I was given. If you accept my demands and stand down, I will become a temporary steward of this realm until a suitable replacement can be found."

"Temporary," Thurr sounded amused. "...Right. Hahaha! No budding tyrant has ever said that before, have they...?"

"It really doesn't interest me," Mermul said, sounding bored. "I have much more important things to do than play at being king. Remember, my gift is to heal in the name of Father Alkrash, and administering your realm full-time would only get in the way of that destiny."

"...You think you're so fucking clever," Lord Thurr growled dangerously. "Well, I'll show you! Maybe you can't die... But your friends can!"

Vinny looked between Thurr and Fardon, an expression of terror on his draconic face. "No..." he whimpered. "No, no, no..."

"We've been through this," Mermul snapped irritably. "I am allowed to protect them, even at the cost of your life."

"Ah, but you can't!" Thurr gloated. "You can't fight an invulnerable dragon lord! Arvir... down him."

At that moment, a dart pierced Mermul's neck and he went down, an expression of surprise on his face as he collapsed to the ground.

"You're only making this worse for yourself," he slurred.

"Oh, that's just to stop you interfering," Thurr said. "It'll wear off shortly. If you have similar powers to the Devourer, then I must treat you with similar caution. But right now, I want to try an experiment. Vinter... come here."

The brown dragon keened with terror, and had to be forced by Thurr's enforcers.

"You... you promised not to kill me if Mermul won!" he whimpered. "You promised!"

"I promised not to decapitate you if he won," Thurr corrected, taking a large, black anti-dragon pistol, and pressing it hard between the terrified dragon's eyes. "Goodbye, Vinter."

"Not like this," Vinny begged. "Not like..."

The brown dragon let out one last sob and then the back of his head burst, spattering gore across the leathery wings and the scales of his back. He collapsed with a heavy crash to the ground, blood still flowing from the death-wound in his ruined skull.

"You treacherous piece of shit," Mermul groaned, eyelids heavy as he tried to fight the drug. "You did promise to spare him."

"Oh. My bad," Thurr shrugged his wings with embarrassment. "Still, it's all in the interest of science!" he said, enthusiastically. "Can you revive a dragon who's lost their brains? What if I ate them first? How many times a day can you do this? If someone is revived multiple times, does it damage them? How long can they stay dead before you're unable to revive them? These are all questions that need answering, Mermul. And thanks to your insolence, we're going to explore them together!"

Mermul sighed, and as Narkath stood protectively over him, succumbed to the drug.

"Don't go anywhere..." Thurr said, as things faded to black. "I'll be back shortly."

* * *

Mermul had fully recovered by the time Lord Thurr returned. Vinny lay beside the frost-dragon, still spattered with his own blood, but breathing slowly, and apparently asleep.

"Fascinating!" Lord Thurr said, sounding extremely pleased. "I notice there's still some bits of brain left over, so I guess we'll have to wait and see whether he's a mindless vegetable. All the same, I'm very impressed!"

"He will make a full recovery," Mermul said, in a tone of absolute certainty.

"Good! Then we can move onto the next test later," Thurr said enthusiastically. "I like a challenge! Talking of which... I've brought you a present."

Standing on his hind legs for a moment, Thurr clapped his hands together twice. The throne room doors swung open and a group of enforcers entered, bearing a heavy load between them.

"Surprise!" the dragon-lord said, as they dumped the body of a dragoness in the middle of the throne room. She lay there, glazed eyes still wide with shock, and a trickle of dried blood caked around one nostril. Her scales were white with purple highlights.

"NO!" Fardon yelled, horrified.

Vinny opened his eyes, took in the scene and keened like a howling wolf. "Zeelah!" he wailed. "Noooo..."

"Yes!" Lord Thurr gloated. "Your enchantress friend! See what your defiance has cost her, Mermul... I have devoured her immortal soul! Maybe you can replace Vinter's brain, but your fancy resurrection magic can't fix that, now can it?!"

Mermul threw back his head and keened. Through his sorrow, Fardon felt some small pang of relief that the Mermul he knew was still in there somewhere.

"It cannot," the frost dragon admitted bitterly. He shook the tears from his eyes, and then his expression became one of intense concentration. "But this can," he added. His eyes gleamed fiercely, and somehow the pulsing orb of the Xebulon had appeared in his hand.

"You wouldn't..." Lord Thurr said, looking appalled. "You can't! That thing has been hidden! How did you get hold of it?!"

"It is the will of Father Alkrash," Mermul said simply, brandishing the artifact. "For I am the Chosen One." So saying, he locked eyes with Lord Thurr. "Fercia wanted you to have this," he added, and flung the thing at his opponent. Lord Thurr screamed as the orb struck him, the energies suddenly winking out. The bracelet around his arm had become dull and tarnished.

The red dragon lord convulsed on the ground. "No..." he gurgled. "No... Get out! Get OUT... You can't..."

The guards looked at Lord Thurr, at Mermul, Fardon and Narkath, confusion painted on their faces, as they tried to decide who was likely to win. Arvir the sniper broke, fleeing the throne room with a number of others, while the rest waited nervously to see what happened.

"Shall I slay him, Lord Mermul?" Narkath queried.

"No, but restrain him," the frost-dragon decided. "I would not have him killed without trial, and especially not while he is insensible... That would be base treachery."

"But when he recovers, he'll kill us all!" Narkath protested, striding towards the twitching dragon-lord. "This could be our only chance! I'll make it painless, Lord..."

"Wait, Mermul, wait!" Thurr said, closing his eyes in concentration. "Let me handle this..." He blinked twice, looked at his hands in apparent surprise, and then seized the Xebulon, now dull and inert. It flickered into light at his touch, and he hurled it back across the room. The invulnerability bracelet on his arm glowed back to life.

"Got you," the dragon lord said, staring at the bracelet with a triumphant expression.

"No!" Vinny wailed, horrified. "He's stolen another soul!"

"Then we'll just have to throw the orb at him again," Fardon pointed out, eyes narrowing.

"Don't! Wait! Please listen to me!" Lord Thurr begged, looking stricken. "Please! You don't understand! Mermul has won. Lord Thurr is vanquished."

So saying, he attempted to stand, stumbled and limped back towards the throne. At that point he spotted the enchantress' body lying on the ground and slumped visibly. As the others watched in confusion, the dragon lord threw back his head and made a keening noise for a few moments.

"I liked that body," he sobbed, tears in his eyes. He reached down gently, closing the eyelids of the dead dragoness and patting her mane.

"Zeelah? Is that you...?" Fardon asked, eyes bugging.

"Yes," the red dragon sighed, wiping his eyes sadly. "When the Xebulon hit Thurr, it released the souls he had devoured. But that also dislodged his own soul. There was a fight for control of his body, and I won. And..." he said, showing the now-glowing invulnerability bracelet, "...Lord Thurr won the booby-prize. He will not be troubling anyone for the foreseeable future. Not unless someone uses the Xebulon on me," they added pointedly. "Then you risk getting him back."

"If Sir Darving was here, he would never believe you," Fardon pointed out. "I'm not sure I believe you either."

"I want to, Zeelah," Mermul said. "I really do. But you have to understand, if you're not her, if you're Thurr putting on an act... We can't make a mistake that big."

"Spare a thought for me," the red dragon grumbled. "Your problems are mostly over. Mine are only just beginning."

So saying, he stood up, snaked his neck under his belly and peered at his tail. "...This new plumbing is going to take some getting used to for starters," they said. "Plus being called 'Lord'... Though I must admit, I've always wondered what being a guy felt like..."

Vinny and Fardon stared at each other.