Dragon Order of Flame Vol 1 Prologue

Prologue

Luke stood amidst the burning city.

Even until just this morning, the city of Balaz in the theBalazian Kingdom was a beautiful and thriving mecca. But as if it were all a whisper of illusion, the once grand city was nowhere to be seen – engulfed in a roar of flames.

“Volkar!”

Luke yelled as he stared into the destruction until his gaze rested on a vivid red mane of hair belonging to a young boy.

Flutter

A glance into the eerie red light of the young Volkar’s eyes was enough to bring an unsettling chill to any beholder. With a frightening face not unlike that of a demon’s, Volkar turned his burning gaze towards Luke – or to be exact, the thousands of corpses he had slain strewn all about them.

“You dare call upon my name…”

“Volkar, now that your dragon form has been sealed, you will no longer be able to do as you please!”

Luke vehemently spit back.

Volkar’s true ident.i.ty was that of a red dragon. And with a rage born of a loathing for humankind, from the moment he first appeared, he had unleashed a complete destruction upon the two countries – ending at the ruin of the Balazian Kingdom.

To Luke, Volkar was an unforgivable enemy. It was at Volkar’s hands that Luke had twice lost a loved one. The first time he suffered his loss, it was one of agonizing torture; but when it happened a second time, he made a solemn vow to strike dead the monster. It was with that promise he found his way here.

“Lana.”

 His first love was killed in the gruesome hands of a raging cult that wanted to free Volkar from his slumber.

“Kaliah.”

His second love was killed by Volkar himself.

Luke’s mother had pa.s.sed when he was just a young boy, taken ill by the throes of poverty, and as an illegitimate child he was never able identify the man who would have been his father. Without anyone else to call family, Lana and Kaliah had been the two most important people in his life.

Volkar began to growl.

“An insect such as yourself dares to confront me? Frankly it’s beginning to upset me.”

The flames that fueled Volkar’s life began winding all around his body in an amber glow. Seemingly innocent as these bouncing lights were to the dragon itself, they had the devastating power to generate enough heat to reduce a person into ash if he so willed it.

Luke responded,

“Volkar, short of killing every single person here before you, you will not be leaving this place.”

Powerful as he was, he knew there was no way to escape the powerful enchantment that wound around the entire city and kept him trapped within. Antic.i.p.ating the raid, they had prepared the magic to seal what is said to be a dragon’s greatest weapon – its dragon form.

“Cursed dragon, today will be the day you meet your end!”

Anger and hatred began rolling off Volkar’s body in waves, so strong it was almost palpable.

Ever since the moment Volkar had first appeared, the death toll in and of itself exceeded a million in number. If they did not succeed in slaying him this day, death and destruction would continue to rain on the world until every last person was wiped off the face of the planet.

It was only because Volkar had so arrogantly strutted into the hidden trap that they now had any hope of putting a stop to him. As long as the power of the enchantment held, he would not be able to revert back to his dragon form nor would he be able to escape the kingdom of Balazia. It is not to say he would not be a formidable foe in his human form, but the raw strength and power of his flames had been greatly reduced.

Additionally, among the thousand that surrounded Volkar, each and every man was fierce in his own right. Luke’s resolution to kill Volkar no matter the cost had led him to take up the arduous and timely task of gathering this large army of warriors. Unable to depend on the Kingdom of Balazia to bring an end to Volkar, Luke set out on his own mission to bring together a thousand of the most famous fighters in one place to accomplish what could not be done by anyone else.

“Wretched fools! There may be a thousand of you, but what harm could a thousand insects do compared to my might!”

As he registered the determination in each of their eyes, his fury reached a boiling point. It was at that moment as the powerful magic poured out of him that the men rushed forth and a b.l.o.o.d.y battle ensued.

It was a legendary battle – one that would leave an indelible mark in history.

As the burning city crumbled into ruins of rubble all around them, the battle wage on in a ferocious struggle between life and death. In the face of Volkar’s magic,even the mightiest of warriors were falling one by one, leading to ma.s.sive destruction all around.

As the sixth hour of battle was coming to a close, there were only 30 of the thousand strong army still clinging to life. And from that 30, Luke was the only man left standing.

“Uhh…”

Luke glared at the staggering figure that was Volkar.

The two stood at a distance of about ten meters from one another. He could see the signs of fatigue and exhaustion in Volkar’s face, but there was no indication of physical harm anywhere on his body

He smiled coldly as he blew smoke into the air.

“Not too bad. For a bunch of c.o.c.kroaches, that is.”

“…Son of a b.i.t.c.h!”

Luke barely had the strength to form his hands into a fist as he glared at the dragon. He had been hit full force by a vacuum wave of magic where he not only sustained grievous damage but was increasingly losing energy with every drop of blood that seeped from his wound.

“I must admit I’m impressed you are even able to stand upright at this point – I’ll at least give you that much.”

c.o.c.ky as they were, Luke could hear a slight raggedness in Volkar’s breathing as he spoke. Given the magnitude of the repressive force emitted by the colossal magic circle added to a combat lasting over ten hours, it was only natural there would be some indication of fatigue.

Volkar then raised his hand.As a dark cloud of smoke lazily rose up above the blazing flames that burned on the ground, he pointed to the darkened sky as he said,

“I will wreak upon a scale of destruction you could not even fathom and finally bring this d.a.m.n game to an end. You should be honored that you were able to play a role in witnessing such a glorious end.”

Sinister laughter as he howls into the dark night sky

HA! HAHAHA!

A surge of ma.s.sive power rose out in rings and spread across the heavens. Luke was able to antic.i.p.ate the myriad of powerful sorcery Volkar has called upon at every point until now and was one step ahead of the dragon’s imminent plot.

“Volkar!”

Luke sprinted forward with a burst of power he could not possibly have.Only a short distance of ten meters stood between him and his enemy so, without a second thought, he dashed with reckless abandon – using up the last of his energy in a desperate attempt to close the gap.

“Stop!”

The moment Luke’s feet hit the hard and unforgiving ground, the dragon’s voice echoed with the words of another potent spell. As the incantation was spoken, an invisible force wrapped itself around Luke’s body and limiting his mobility.

“Don’t be a fool!”

With sheer determination, Luke struck out with his clenched fists in dogged defiance against the unseen spell that was hindering his progress. But the moment he took his first step, his vision became a blur and collapsed in a heap of disoriented agony.

“Ha!…”

“We all know how this is going to end. You have lost. The only thing left to do is lie down quietly and accept your bitter defeat”, Volkar said with an arrogant sneer.

Though the dizziness threatened to overtake his consciousness, Luke continued to move forward. He knew his steps were mangled and twisted by the force of Volkar’s enchantment, but stopping was not even an option.

Even as Luke inched his way closer and closer to his fearsome foe, Volkar stood still in no effort to stay the encounter. When he was close enough to feel the ribbons of smoke rising out of Volkar’s glowing body, Luke raised his fist high.

“Die….!”

He swung down a fist with a force that could crush boulders into rubbles in one blow as he shouted his heart’s desire into the night air.

Thump.

The sound of his punch rung in a hollow and short-lived note. It was then that Volkar finally spoke again,

“It seems you do not even have an ounce of energy left at your disposal. How very lovely.”

It was true. Just as Volkar observed, Luke had run out clean. He had nothing. Pus.h.i.+ng past his limits, he threw out all that he had in a last ditch attempt only to result in nothing more than a seemingly light tap.

HAHAHAHA…!

A thunderous roar began to ring down from above. Luke painfully raised his head to look up at a gargantuan ball of fire speeding down towards him. An ancient and powerful magic that was said to have the devastating power to destroy an entire country, it was the Star of Annihilation.

“The time has finally come for me to clean my hands of this filth.”

At the exact instant Volkar spoke those words, the flames that had been winding all about him began to die out. And it was when the flames swept over Luke’s own battered body that he heard the sound of his own amplified beating heart.

Thump!

‘What?’

He could see that the flames had leapt onto his body but, for a moment, all he could do was register that fact and look on in idle observance.

Then he realized there was something wrong. The flames lazily spread over the entirety of his frame as if time had been stretched out.

A voice of a leisurely cadence spoke out in a slow and almost dragged out manner from the heart of the flames. Just as he thought to himself that there was a familiar ring to the voice, it continued with its speech.

In that moment, a pure white light appeared and enveloped everything.