The Windwyrm's Decision
Midgardsormr: ......
Midgardsormr: (The wind howls. Is it the harbinger of a coming storm, or...?)
Midgardsormr: (It is a bold claim to say you will unearth the bedrock of this world and sculpt it as you see fit, Alberius.)
That afternoon...
Midgardsormr: Just how is it you mean to alter the very foundations of our world, human?
Alberius: By the two of us working together to solve this mystery.
Midgardsormr: And you propose to be of use in this endeavor...how, exactly?
Alberius: I will allow myself to be captured and taken prisoner, and you will follow to see where I am taken.
Midgardsormr: I knew better than to expect much. Your plan is nothing more than begging help from a higher power, same as ever.
Alberius: I haven't finished explaining. Hear me out. There's a reason to it.
Alberius: Did it not strike you as odd that soldiers are here in the first place?
Alberius: There are no outposts nearby. No bases. We've never seen one out this far, yet suddenly here they are. Why is that?
Midgardsormr: Mostlike it is a trap to ensnare prisoners.
Midgardsormr: They release the otherworldly fiends they'd summoned in order to terrorize the village.
Midgardsormr: And when its denizens turn to them for help, they swoop up the lot of them as minnows swimming into the fisher's net.
Alberius: I thought the same.
Alberius: We know they're after live captives, so we can use that to our advantage. Getting caught on purpose is the fastest way to learn who is behind all of this.
Alberius: Whoever it is, they're cagey enough to seal the lips of their men, so we'll likely learn more inside than out.
Midgardsormr: I admit, it makes a certain sense—yet I fail to see how this plan holds anything but danger for you.
Midgardsormr: You've no guarantees they won't execute you on the spot once they have you.
Alberius: Then why bother taking people alive at all? If they didn't have good reason not to kill, they wouldn't go through the hassle.
Midgardsormr: You've also no guarantee that I will come running to your rescue.
Alberius: On that front, I have no doubt.
Midgardsormr: Oh?
Alberius: Those soldiers were using fiends frenzied by black mana.
Alberius: The longer this goes on, the greater their numbers will swell.
Alberius: And fiends dripping with black mana overrunning the land isn't good for this world, right?
Midgardsormr: Just so. But that still presents no reason for me to aid you when I might just subdue the soldiers by force instead.
Alberius: Only if you wish to replay past events. A dead man cannot tell what he knows, and the living have their memories wiped.
Alberius: But if I learn the truth from the source and make it out alive, it is no longer an issue.
Midgardsormr: ......
Alberius: What do you say? Does my plan hold at least some merit?
Midgardsormr: You're quite the talker, aren't you?
Midgardsormr: (If I ever imagined something would drive me to beg a human's aid, it wasn't this.)
Midgardsormr: (Yet I can't deny his proposal is my— no, is OUR most efficient option.)
Midgardsormr: (Speaking of efficiency, why would the perpetrator summon otherworldly fiends?)
Midgardsormr: (If they wished to use fiends, this world has no shortage of its own.)
Midgardsormr: (And whence the need to abduct humans?)
Alberius: Oh... A shame there's not some kind of door that permits one to pass through while bypassing the space between.
Midgardsormr: (Can that be their true aim?!)
Soldier 1: This the next sacrifice, is it? Toss 'em up on the altar.
Alberius: What are you planning to do with me?!
Soldier 1: Tremble with joy, peasant, for you'll soon become the cornerstone of a great work that will bind the world together as one!
Alberius: Binding the world as one? That's amazing! Right, then. Sacrifice away.
Soldier 1: You're...more understanding about this than our usual sacrifices.
Alberius: What can I say? I've gotten bored of the monotony of village life, and it would be an honor to be a part of something so grand!
Alberius: But before you do it, I'm dying to know just what my life is being used for. ...Heh. Dying to know. That's good.
Soldier 1: What use is knowing when death awaits?
Alberius: Is it not natural for one selling his life to be curious what it is buying?
Alberius: Surely this "great work" isn't just rounding up people and offing them—unless your army is no more than common brigands.
Soldier 1: Silence, fool! Still, I refuse to allow such a laughable accusation to stand. If you are so curious of your life's use, I'll tell you...
Soldier 1: We seek to open a gate to another world. Doing so, however, requires tremendous amounts of energy.
Soldier 1: You sacrifices serve the noble purpose of supplying our vast store of mana.
Alberius: A gate to another world?! Oh my, this IS a great work! Er, but what happens once you finally have it open?
Soldier 1: As you will not be there to witness its opening, there is no need for you to know.
???: Then I shall tell him. These men look to resurrect the Other, who has been sealed away in the heart of the other world.
Soldier 1: Who goes there?! And how do you— Aaaaaugh!
Humanoid Midgardsormr: To style such fatal idiocy a "great work" is the very height of delusion.
Alberius: Midgardsormr!
Humanoid Midgardsormr: I did not wish to hear my suspicions confirmed, but you did well to loosen their tongues.
Soldier 1: How did a dragon find this place?!
Humanoid Midgardsormr: By following your delighted sacrifice there.
Soldier 1: But...why is a dragon helping a human?
Soldier 2: Captain! We must abandon this place!
Soldier 1: None who know of our plans may live!
Soldier 1: Plus, we're too close to stop now! We've succeeded in opening rifts to the space between worlds. All that remains now is to open the gate!
Humanoid Midgardsormr: So the previous rifts have been failed attempts at this gate.
Soldier 1: I do not fear you, dragon—and in fact, your mana should suffice to open the gate and see Lord Morsayati reborn!
Alberius: I fear we cannot allow that.
Humanoid Midgardsormr: The world shall not be permitted to fall into chaos once more! Haaaah!
Humanoid Midgardsormr: Your altar lies shattered, and I have placed this land's mana back under my control. Your doomed plot is undone. It is over.
Soldier 1: *cough* Heh heh... Over...? No... This is only the beginning...
Soldier 1: My empire's preparations are...nearly complete. Stopping us...means nothing.
Alberius: So IS it over?
Humanoid Midgardsormr: For now.
Humanoid Midgardsormr: (So they truly seek to awaken the Other.)
Humanoid Midgardsormr: (Is that dark history set to repeat itself?)
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