Introduction
Incorneal Unribth Acledas was born to a small noble family. There was nothing that marked him as special. He had no magical prowess and no interest in the sword, despite how many times his parents got him private tutors. He was not beautiful, but he had a powerful force of will and a strong personality. When it came time to go to college, he tried and failed in many different departments. When he enrolled in a school for the arts, it became clear that he had no patience for the care that was required in each stroke, preferring to rush through his work and end with a messy canvas with colors dripping. When he enrolled in a writing school, he demonstrated a propensity to develop incomplete stories, with stories that contradicted themselves. When he researched history he exhibited favoritism, and left. The only place subject he thrived in was theology.
He found the stories interesting in themselves, and found the small weird twists of fate involving the gods to be strange and worth research. What he found the most interesting was their creations, and decided to find a
Seeker Dragon, one of the few creatures that was created through the collaboration of two gods,
Diana and
Geltham.
Incorneal eventually learned of a
Seeker Dragon that lived in a nearby mountain in the
War Ravaged.
Chapter 1
Incorneal climbs the side of the mountain, looking down at the spires of his college. Who knew that a
Seeker Dragon lived so near him? He looks back at the thin ledge he walks across. He knows why the college was built here, how the
War Ravaged is constant proof of the god's existence and their war, and that it still has relics from the
Universal War, but right now he wishes that it just happened to be at another place, that also has a
Seeker Dragon living nearby. Like a beach. Across the ocean. Without nearly vertical cliffs.
He edges across the cliff edge and prays to whatever god would have power over this that the lair is close.
Diana?
Geltham?
Rickry?
Seeker Dragons do have an element of trickery to them, so possibly.
"Hi there stranger," says someone who is standing on the path. "What are you doing up here?" She's a lady wearing clothes that simply are not suited for climbing a mountain. He looks down and sees high heels.
"You're the dragon's soulbond, aren't you?" he says, panting, and she smirks.
"Sure," she says, and her features start warping.
"Don't try to make me throw up,"
Incorneal says. "So, can you lead me to them?" She looks at him weirdly.
"He's out," she says. "He's doing what
Seeker Dragons do." She conjures an apple and takes a bite out of it. "Living a life."
"Oh,"
Incorneal says. "Well then perhaps I could talk to you." She looks at him, startled.
"You want to talk with me?" the woman asks, and the apple disappears. "Why? The most interesting part of my life was meeting the dragon, and you know how that turned out."
"Well,"
Incorneal says. "Oh jeez, this is going to sound rude. How old are you?" She looks at him and laughs.
"Okay kid, who are you?" She asks. "Most people just don't ask that of a lady. Hell, I met
Diana and I didn't ask that."
"Well we know how old
Diana is, so there's no reason to find out, is there?"
Incorneal says. "So, can we go to the lair?" He gestures downwards. "I don't like heights."
She snaps her fingers, and
Incorneal appears in the middle of his college's square.
The next day,
Incorneal climbs the mountain again. This time he encounters a man, wearing fully competent climbing clothes, who attempts to dissuade him from climbing further, claiming there was no lair, but
Incorneal pushes past him and gets teleported back to the square again.
Incorneal tries for many more days, each time getting stopped by a different person, and each time teleported back to the square.
Eventually,
Incorneal receives a letter calling him home. He has to go.
The next day, the person who kept stopping
Incorneal gets curious. The first few times they had to make up a personality on the fly, not expecting
Incorneal to come back, but the times after that they had spent time and effort making up a personality, and had been anticipating this one.
Spellwork leads them to
Incorneal's dormitory in the college, learning his name, and finds
Incorneal's hairbrush, taking one of his hairs and scrying him.
They find
Incorneal in his home, which is across the ocean, and decides to visit.
Chapter 2
Incorneal goes to his house, immediately reporting to his father's room, and stands awkwardly at the door, waiting for his father to say something.
"How are you doing
Incorneal?" his father asks, looking awkward. He's had to do this six times, but it never seemed to get easier for him.
"Good,"
Incorneal says. "So why am I here? What happened?" His father sighs. He had been hoping to avoid this as long as possible.
"
Incorneal, I thought you liked theology..." his father says.
"I do,"
Incorneal says, confused.
"Then why have you missed ten days of class?" his father says. "This is the seventh thing you've simply stopped learning."
"I'm doing research, Father,"
Incorneal says, understanding the misunderstanding and gaining confidence rapidly. He walks over to his father and spreads his arm. "I've found a
Seeker Dragon lair."
"And you've been inside this lair?" his father asks.
"No, but-" an explosion rips through the air, followed by a tearing sound.
Incorneal runs to the balcony. He leans over it, a tingling in his mind, a sensitivity gained from his time practicing celestial magic, alerting him to the presence of a god.
On the horizon is a kaleidoscope of colors, red and blue snaking through each other with eyes floating and staring towards the center. A figure rises up, a squirming mass of energy shaped like a humanoid.
Incorneal knows this is a
God.
"It's a god!"
Incorneal says. "A real god!"
"Well, which one?" his father asks impatiently.
"A new one,"
Incorneal says breathlessly.
"I guess a
Seeker Dragon is boring compared to a
God." a woman says from behind the two of them. She walks over to them and winks to
Incorneal.
"You're the
Seeker Dragon from
Plurum, right?"
Incorneal asks.
"Yes," the woman says. "It took a while to find you. I was expecting you to come today."
"A dragon is only good if we live to see this day through."
Incorneal's father says.
"Quite," the dragon says. "Let's go
Incorneal." His father blanches, but
Incorneal bites his lip and turns to look at the
God on the horizon.
"No," he says, and everybody else startles. "Dragon, send me closer to the
God."
"Do you have a death wish?" she asks. "They'll kill you."
"I don't think so,"
Incorneal says. "Just send me closer."
"Fine," the dragon says and walks up to him and pushes on his chest. The air around him crystallizes as he stumbles backwards through it, bending and refracting and swallowing him. "A soulbond with a death wish is not worth anything anyway."
Incorneal's father looks at her blankly.
"You will let my son die like that?" he asks. The dragon sighs and puts a hand to her forehead.
"How should I explain this? Your son is strange. He's precocious, headstrong, daring, and he somehow has determined that this
God is new, and therefore has no followers. He hopes to calm it down by worshiping it," she says, and his father stands there dumbstruck.
"He thought it through that far?" The dragon nods. "My son? The same one who can't make it through a year of higher education?" The dragon nods again. She turns to look at the horizon and abruptly the whirling mass disappears.
Chapter 3
A few days later, the
Seeker Dragon returns to her lair, having given up on finding
Incorneal. She returns to the same place, expecting it to be the same as always, full of masterpieces, empty of life. However, she finds that the place is full of laughter and the smell of wine.
She walks in further and rounds a corner to fine
Incorneal and a young man sitting against a wall near one of her most prized possessions, a statue of the half
Dragon king of a kingdom long past in the
Air Chaos.
Incorneal holds a wine that she can tell from aroma and look is one of the more expensive wines, which usually isn't even on markets.
"
Incorneal!" She says. "And am I correct to assume that you are the new
God?" The young man eyes her warily, his eyes cold as steel.
"Yes," he replies. "I am called
Isa, God of Insanity and Snakes. You are the seeker dragon?" he asks.
"Yes Lord
Isa," she replies and steps back.
"Am I still to be your soulbound?"
Incorneal asks.
"Yes," she replies and continues. "Are you enjoying the wine?"
"Quite!"
Incorneal says and smiles.
Isa turns to look at him and smiles.
"Yes,"
Isa says, grabs the bottle and takes a swig. "We've been waiting for a couple days for you. The townsfolk were quite funny once they all went mad." The
Dragon freezes.
"But we fixed that,"
Incorneal interjects. "It was a little bit of fun, but nobody got hurt."
"No, but it was still fun,"
Isa says. "Sanity... such a fragile and slippery thing, yet it's so integral for the world to function. What is your name,
Dragon?"
"I am called Hono by those who refer with a name," the
Dragon replies. "That is, while I'm not in one of my many lives."
"Have you lived as an insane man?"
Isa asks.
"What?"
Hono asks.
"Well then,"
Isa says, raising a hand.
"No!"
Incorneal says. "She doesn't need to be insane."
"Hm, maybe you're right,"
Isa says, his brow furrowed. "It might be fun though."
"
Incorneal, have you found your quarters yet?"
Hono asks.
Incorneal nods.
"Me and
Isa are sharing the bed," he replies. "Now that we're together, what should we do tomorrow?"
Over the next few days the three get closer.
Hono, formally called
Dragon of Humans, and
Isa become closer, each placing
Incorneal under their wing. Using magics gained from both of them, along with a set of magical armor as a gift from other
Gods,
Incorneal soon becomes a mighty warrior, although he rarely uses might.
Incorneal makes the soulbound oath, that he will spread the
Seeker Dragon's knowledge once she dies.
Chapter 4
Isa stands above the soulless body of
Eater, a squirming orb of energy, a soul, in his hand. He stares down at the body, then teleports away, back into the lair.
"What the?"
Incorneal yells upon seeing the soul. "Why do you have a
God's soul?"
"He insulted you,"
Isa says. "Let's go." He drops the soul and it shatters into five parts. One slides further into the cave. This is
Eater's immortality. "Or not,"
Isa says, smiling. He makes a gesture and the immortality rises into the air and into a chalice. "Drink," he says, gesturing to
Incorneal.
"What? No!"
Incorneal protests, then feels the same tingle he felt when he first saw
Isa. "There's another
God/Godess."
"I will take care of it,"
Isa says. "Go. Keep the chalice."
Incorneal runs into the cave and places the chalice in the room of
Hono.
"Protect it my friend," he whispers and puts on his armor, grabbing a weapon from the piles of treasure. He runs back to the front of the cave where
Isa is crumpled on the ground, twitching, multicolored light spilling from his chest. A few other
Gods stand over him, one of them
Diana.
"Rest sweet child," she says and leans over, pressing her hand to his chest and he disappears.
Incorneal feels power drain from him, and he collapses to his knees.
Diana picks up the remaining four pieces of a soul and fuses them back together, then nods to the other
Gods.
They disappear.
Incorneal cries, peeling off the armor and fleeing to his room, where he still remembers
Isa, his
God, playing, laughing, living. He does not know where
Isa is now, though he knows that he is incomplete. He cries himself to sleep.
Chapter 5
When
Incorneal wakes up, he smells blood. Not human, no, not nearly irony enough. He runs out of his room and runs to
Hono's room, where his friend is laying splayed on the ground in
Dragon form, a shard of earth in her chest.
He calls the dragon’s name, expecting a reply but none comes.
The jaw of the dragon slowly opens and closes and
Incorneal, with the bond that they both share, instantly understands the command, to go and spread the wealth of knowledge that they had compiled through the years.
But
Incorneal refused. He refused the one and only condition to their bond.
Incorneal keeps crying, until eventually a thug tries to steal an item.
Incorneal kills the thug, his eyes burning with rage, and resolves to break his vow. He would not let his friend die.
As he resolved this, the
Dragon of Humans' scales turn from silver to black.
He set about to finding the trail of the
God, for who else could do this to his friend? Who else deserves more retribution? His eyes light with magic and suddenly he sees the blinding trail of magic left by the gods. It’s easy to follow.
He follows the trail, and soon enough comes to a chasm that wraps around the world and pierces past its heart. He crosses it simply enough, simply appearing on the other side.
In the next day, he finds the chalice.
After a few more hours he returns to the lair.
Immediately he forces the
Dragon to drink the immortality.
He is then killed by the
Gods.
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