The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 112

#112 The End of the War

The man stood up, leaving out an exhausted sigh.
He was drenched in blood. His blood and the one of the two dragons he had just fought. The dragons weren’t dead. One was lying down on the ground, a sword pinning his wing, and the other was cornered, growling furiously while trying to hide his injured leg. The War God’s body was covered with black scales, struggling to heal the many cuts on his body. All of his armor had been torn away, leaving him only with his pants on. He put his hand on his neck, checking the fresh injury. His own blood tainted his fingers as he snickered.
They had really given it their all at trying to kill him… However, those two young dragons were mostly afraid, trapped in a tight room with him. In a more open ground, they probably would have had more chances to succeed in killing him. However, in here, they were as trapped as he was and unable to use their wings. They even hindered each other quite a few times, mistakenly biting or scratching their skins. Without that, maybe they would have succeeded in killing him.
“Kairen!”
He heard a long bang on the door behind him and turned around. His sister violently burst in, sending the locked doors flying. Shareen’s hair was all over her face, and she seemed angry. She had her sword out, too, for the minute it took her to assess the situation. Kairen, standing alone in the vast room, with two young dragons cornered at each end of it. She clicked her tongue, shaking her head and putting her sword back.
“So that was that trap of his… Using young dragons,” she growled, approaching the two beasts. “I fucking knew it…”
“You know those?” Asked Kairen.
Shareen rolled her eyes, pointing the two dragons.
*Do an effort, brother. You can’t even recognize your own nephews’ dragons? I know we haven’t seen them more than a couple of times, but still… This one is Vrehan second son’s, and this one is Sephir’s son’s… Damn it, that asshole really used the kids…”
Kairen frowned.
“…Shareen, what are you doing here?”
“You could at least pretend you’re happy to see me!”
“You should be in the North,” he insisted, frowning.
Shareen nodded, putting her hands on her hips. His sister had come wearing her armor and, seeing how stained it already was, she had probably fought her way there as well. She didn’t have a scratch on her, though. Only a few pearls of sweat and her ruined outfit.
“I would still be in the North if it wasn’t for that dead ass Vrehan making a fucking ruckus at the Diamond Palace.”
“What?”
The War God’s anger rose immediately, scaring the two dragons in the room into retreating even further away from him with whimpers. Kairen didn’t give a damn about those two, however. The Diamond Palace was where he had left his mother and his concubine. The mere mention of his half-brother anyway near them was not something he wanted to hear. Shareen didn’t make the suspense last either.
“Yeah, it is bad. That rat face walked into mother’s Palace, claiming to be under our Father’s orders to arrest Cassie.”
The vein at his temple was violently thumping as his eyes darkened in anger. Kairen’s murderous intent had never, ever been anywhere near that bad before.
“He took Cassandra…?” He hissed.
“No, thank the Gods. She and her sister managed to run away, but Vrehan is definitely after them. That’s why I came to get you back as soon as I could. Anour stayed back with Mother, I didn’t want to leave her alone.”
Kairen was absolutely furious, even if his concubine hadn’t been caught yet. He loathed the idea of anyone near her, let alone those who wanted to harm her. His blood went cold, thinking about something else.
“What of our son?” 5
“Apparently, he’s been born and well, from the last news we got of them. Congrats, I guess.”
Kairen was furious. He had broken his promise to Cassandra. She had given birth alone, and he had missed their child’s birth… For now, he didn’t want any congratulations until his concubine and son would be with him to receive them. Furious, he turned around and walked towards the two terrorized dragons. They tried to growl back, warn him not to approach, but he ignored them and came closer.
“Which one?” He asked.
“This one is Seban’s,” said Shareen, pointing at the dark blue Dragon with its wing half-ripped.
Without adding another word, the War God walked to the other dragon. The tall brown beast growled furiously, trying to retreat as much as he could in his corner and show his fangs. When Kairen got close enough, the Dragon jumped forward, trying to attack in a desperate attempt. The War God sliced its head. 5
The Dragon’s head rolled away from its body, while the other dragon whimpered in fear from that scene. Shareen didn’t react much. This was legitimate, in their world. She was even surprised that he had apparently decided to spare Seban’s Dragon, despite the already poor state of the creature… She glanced down, but the indigo creature was pitifully shivering, its eyes fixated on Kairen in sheer fear.
“You poor one,” she sighed.
However, the War God didn’t have time for another glance at the young dragon. Kairen walked out of that building, walking back into the battle; Despite his absence, his men were not at a loss.
The Imperial Army was well-trained and perfectly capable by itself. The absence of their Commander in Chief for a few hours had not stopped them at all, as they finished the fight against the invader. There were a lot of victims and bodies, but few from the Dragon Empire’s people. On her way there, Shareen had been surprised to see how many common people were actually helping the soldiers, using those strange little boxes to tend their injuries. It was even more obvious now that the battle had died down, and the last enemies alive were brought together.
The War God had no time to waste. Ignoring all the men that tried to enquire about his situation or rejoice about their victory, he walked straight into the building were his generals had been put together.
“Your Highness! How come you’re…”
“Where is their leader?” Growled Kairen, ignoring all of them.
One man was dragged forward, and his fancy uniform clearly gave away his high ranking among his army. Despite the large, ugly open injury on his head, he still had a defiant look while facing Kairen.
“Long live the Eastern Republic! We shall not obey the barbaric…”
Shareen gave a violent kick to his jaw before he could finish that sentence. The sound of his teeth breaking against one another made several men grimace. The man coughed up some blood, looking horrified.
“A w-woman! How dare you! A woman cannot hit a man!”
“Sorry, darling, wrong Empire for your fucking chauvinism. Now, talk before I break how many teeth and bones you got left one by one.”
“I won’t talk! I will die for my country!” Shout the man, despite his mouth full of blood and his missing teeth. “I will never…”
“Oh, fuck you and just die like an idiot then.”
Just like that, Shareen took out her weapon and killed the man right there. No one around was really surprised, as the Generals had witnessed this kind of thing countless times from the Imperial Family within the Palace all their meetings were held. Kairen turned to them.
“Who else did we get?”
“No one that will talk, Your Highness,” sighed one of the Generals, shaking his head. “All the leaders we caught either committed suicide or swore they’d never display any of their country’s military secret. We are still interrogating them at the moment.”
“This is annoying,” hissed Shareen. “We need proof of that rat face’s involvement in the war.”
“We have no proof that the second Prince…”
“We have one already,” interrupted Kairen.
The men turned to him, a bit flustered.
“W-we do, Your Highness?”
“There are two dragons left inside a building at the south-west,” he said. “Get them and make sure they make the trip back to the Capital with us.”
He turned around to leave the building, while the Generals and Shareen followed after him.
“You want to use those two as proof?” She said. “Vrehan will pretend his son acted by himself!”
“Then we’ll just have to make his son and Sephir’s talk.”
“Kairen, Sephir is dead.”
Kairen stopped and turned around to face his sister. Around her, the high-ranked soldiers that had just heard that news looked shocked, all of them exchanging glances with their eyes wide open. Kairen was focused on his sister. Shareen’s expression was cold and serious, making him realize this was the truth.
The War God was shocked, more than he let on. Though they weren’t particularly close, he had always considered Sephir as a real older brother. Maybe the one he was the closest to, after Anour. His fists clenched, Kairen resumed walking, not saying a word on what he thought about that news. That was just another crime added to the already large debt of what Vrehan would have to pay for…
“I need to go back to the Capital right away,” he hissed.
“Your Highness, you can’t!” Pleaded one of the Generals, running after him. “I’m most sorry about the First Prince’s passing, but we need to officially end this war, fortify the border, and have the Eastern Army acknowledge they attacked us! We need to make their leaders pay for the damages, and sign a treaty at least!”
The War God suddenly turned around, grabbing the man by the collar under everyone else’s astonished eyes.
“My Concubine and my child are in danger. My older brother just got murdered and you’re fucking talking to me about damn paperwork. You don’t need me for that,” he growled. 2
“Your Highness!”
He threw the man away, ignored them, and kept walking, followed by his sister. No one else dared to follow him.
“Kairen, we have to stop by the Diamond Palace to get mother,” declared Shareen.
“She can wait. I need to find Cassandra.”
“Kairen, stop a second and listen!” Urged his sister. “Kairen, I know you just want to find them, but things are bad. There are rumors that Father has fallen ill, and Vrehan is acting in his stead. That little rat shit can have himself named Emperor the minute father dies if he wants. Now that Sephir is gone and you’re away on a battlefield, he’ll give no choice to the ministers. No one knows your son is born, and Vrehan will definitely try to kill him and Cassie before it is known. We need to get Anour and mother to help us deal with all that crap. We caught Phetra at the Diamond Palace. That bitch can still spill the beans about Vrehan.”
“…Where is Cassandra?”
They were hurrying outside of the City, Kairen’s eyes on Krai that was flying a few paces away. His Dragon was not done hunting and killing the few survivors trying to flee the battle. Some of them were desperately trying to get to the frontier, but the Dragon wouldn’t even let them anywhere close to it.
Shareen sighed.
“According to mother, Cassie and Missandra decided to head to the Capital. Thank the Gods, they managed to win some time by making that idiot Vrehan think they were headed North to the Onyx Castle instead. They are on their own with your son and its dragon, though, and we don’t even know if they are there yet. And Dahlia was killed by Vrehan, too…”
“Dahlia?”
“That servant girl mother placed by her side, the one that was always around Cassandra, remember? She died trying to protect your woman… Poor girl.”
Kairen nodded vaguely. He did remember a young servant girl that was always around Cassandra. He didn’t know she was one of his mother’s many spies, though. Not that he cared about that fact at all, his mother was definitely the type to do that kind of thing. All he could think about right now was finding Cassandra and their son, and make sure they were both safe. Anywhere far from Vrehan would be enough.
Roun, that had been waiting at the entrance of the City, stood up as soon as he saw them. Shareen had come on his back, so he had been expecting her to return. Meanwhile, Kairen waited for Krai to arrive, and jumped on his back for their trip to the Diamond Palace. By the time they had arrived at the Diamond Palace, Shareen had just finished telling him in detail everything that had happened on her side.
When they landed in their mother’s garden, Kareen ran out to greet them. She hugged Kairen with a sad and angry look, and he noticed that she was holding something.
“That…”
“Oh, Cassie was working on it before all this happened,” said his mother. “She wanted to give it to your son after his birth…”
Kairen had recognized the little dragon plushie, despite the pretty embroideries his concubine had added to mend it. Even Krai, curious, sniffed the toy a bit before running to another aisle of the Diamond Palace. Kairen ran inside after him. They were both headed exactly to the same place.
In the remote garden, everything had been left as it was. Krai was growling, looking at the scene, his back arched furiously. Kairen, too, squeezed the little plushie in his hand. They were both staring at the scattered remains of a dragon’s egg.