Drakengard: Far From Home
During an attack on the Castle of the Goddess by the Empire, Caim fought a fierce battle to protect the goddess, his sister Furiae. As a mighty warrior, Caim easily slayed countless foes to carve a path directly to the castle, but not without being mortally wounded from behind. As the attack drew into the castle courtyard, he found that the Empire has captured a red dragon. Engulfed by hatred, Caim approached the dragon with murderous intent, memories of his parents' deaths at the claws of an evil black dragon flooded his mind and in a rage, Caim raised his sword to end the dragon’s life.
Severely wounded and near death, the dragon whispered, "Kill me if you desire... but you can never dirty my soul, wretched human!"
Caim, bleeding heavily and close to death himself from a deep wound in his back, rethought his decision and in an act of desperation said, “Tell me. Do you still want to live, dragon?”
“What…?” The dragon asked in bewilderment.
“A pact! There’s no other way.” Caim stated, sword held high over the dragon’s head.
“What makes you worthy of a pact with me?” the dragon growled.
"Worthy or not, I wish to live! Despise me if you will, but I shall not die." He told her. Seeing that the dragon was still hesitant, Caim demanded an answer. "Your answer, a pact… or death?"
Before the red dragon can give her answer, more imperial soldiers attacked, swarming the courtyard in droves. “You interrupt us! Go back to hell, hyenas!” Caim yelled as he charged into the melee.
Trusty sword in hand, he lashed out with powerful blows, rending the imperial soldiers’ armor useless. For every enemy killed, his sword would gain power from their life force. After several kills his sword took on a soft red glow. With a bloodthirsty grin he released the magic onto the remaining soldiers, reducing them to ash in a mighty fireball.
The dragon was impressed by the dying human’s power, “Still alive? You are blessed by the devil’s luck. A pact with you…” She trailed off as she pondered the strength to be gained from forming a pact with the human.
Caim hobbled over to the dragon, his strength quickly draining as he leaned on his sword to help keep his balance. “Now. Your answer.” He said weakly.
“A pact? Or death? We are united by our need to live.” Said the dragon.
“Well?” Demanded Caim.
After another moment’s hesitation, the dragon decided, “Yes, a pact.”
Caim reached to, and then inside his own chest. Grunting in great pain, he withdrew his very soul and presented it to the dragon. At the same time, the dragon writhed in agony as she drew her own soul into her mouth from the depths of her body. Together they reached forward and merged their very souls together. A blinding light engulfed them, mending their wounds and restoring their strength, allowing the dragon to break the chains binding her in place. Caim leaped onto a spot at the base of her neck, and with a mighty roar that shook the castle grounds they took off into the sky.
Together they set out to destroy the empire with their new power. However, such power comes with a price, a bit of the human’s soul. The price Caim paid was harsh, but to protect his sister and the rest of the world it was just a small price to pay, his voice.
For three months, Caim and his dragon fought the forces of the empire, gaining several allies along the way. A small child, Seere, who was cursed to live as a child for all eternity, and his pact beast, golem, Arioch, driven mad with the murder of her family, her dual pact beasts, water and fire elementals Undine and Salamander, at the cost of her fertility, and Leonard, his pact beast that of a small fairy, with the price of his eyesight.
Together they cut a bloody path to the leader of the imperial army, a demon possessed child, Seere’s sister, Manah. They failed to stop her from killing Caim’s sister in time, and chased her though an immense castle and cornered her in an armory. Failing to save his own sister from her fate, Seere asks his pact partner to end her life. Golem reached back and smashed Manah into the ground, killing her instantly.
Above the heart of the Empire, the heavens parted with light. With their tool, Manah, now gone, enormous, floating, savage children with powerful magic, what are believed to be the Watchers, began to rain down from the sky, searching to destroy anything that is living. The end of the world was at hand.
In a bout of insanity, Arioch welcomed the 'children' that laughed before her.
“Arioch! What are you doing?!” Leonard yelled in desperation.
Arioch failed to react to Leonard and instead reached up to the swarms of ‘children’ floating above her. “The greatest of… feasts…” she said longingly, wanting to feast on the forms of children before her. In a single swift movement, numerous children swarmed around her, blocking her from view as they tore into her flesh.
“Th-they’re devouring Arioch!” Seere said fearfully.
“Stop your sniveling, the way is clear! Run for your life!” The dragon yelled. As the group of warriors fled, they noticed a great number of children gathering in the sky above the center of the city.
The ground began to shake and rumble, forcing the group to dive for cover. They watched in absolute fear and dread as a giant behemoth in the form of a woman rose into the center of the city, the queen of the beasts, The Devourer of Time.
The sky turned red as blood, fierce clouds of angry thunder roared overhead. All consuming blackness stretched outward, devouring the world as the queen-beast grew. The few that managed to survive the slaughter wrought by the children were defenseless as the darkness washed over them, leaving nothing but dying screams.
Caim looked around, once more faced with impossible odds, then quickly brushed his mind against the dragon’s and told her what needed to be done, they needed to get in close and attack with everything they had.
“To catch the lion’s cub, you must enter the lion’s den.” The dragon said wisely, preparing to fly through swarms of enemies to reach the queen-beast.
“No! Caim, don’t go! Please don’t leave me alone!” Seere called out.
“We will meet again, if we live.” The dragon said as she flew off toward the giant queen-beast.
“But… but at least… Don’t forget me! Ever!” Seere yelled, hoping his final farewell was heard.
Caim acknowledged the boy’s cries, but he spared no time as he encouraged his pact partner through the enemy ranks. He flew over the horrors being wrought beneath him, the city soon to be destroyed by the darkness, the rest of the world soon after. The children soon caught on to what they were doing and began firing numerous blasts of magic in their direction.
With reflexes gained from over ten thousand years of fighting for survival, the dragon dove, dodged, rolled and looped, effectively evading all incoming attacks and managing to kill and severely wound a great number of the flying monstrosities in the process.
With a mighty blast of dragon magic, she cleared a path to the center of the city. Without a second thought she, along with Caim, flew forth with all her speed, stopping in the center of the city directly above the queen-beast.
“Are you prepared, Caim?” the dragon asked. Caim nodded his acknowledgement, whispering it directly into her mind as he did so. “Then let us finish this.”
With a mighty cry toward the heavens, the dragon dove straight toward the queen-beast. As they drew closer, time itself seemed to slow down as a bright light burst forth from below the queen-beast, consuming it as it was engulfed in a blaze of pure white light, and together man, dragon, and monster fell tumbling into a chasm that splits time and space.
Princess Celestia, alongside her sister, Princess Luna, was sitting on her balcony enjoying the peace and harmony that was Equestria. She took a deep breath, basking in the light of her sun. The gentle breeze caressed her fur lovingly as her tail and mane moved with the flow of magic around her.
“It has been some time since I saw you this relaxed, Tia.” Luna remarked, her voice cutting though the comfortable silence with ease.
“It’s been really busy since your return, and I wasn’t about to throw you to the wolves until you regained your power and learned of the last thousand years.” Celestia said, turning to her sister. “And now that you are restored to your rightful place by my side, my workload has been greatly reduced, letting me finally get some time to relax.”
“If working harder on my part makes for more times like this for us to enjoy each other’s company, then I shall do my best.” Luna said slowly. She was mostly used to modern forms of speech, but if she wasn’t careful she would easily slip back into Old Equish.
“Oh you needn’t overwork yourself for my benefit, Lulu, I-” Celestia cut herself off as she felt a great weight suddenly pressed onto the very planet itself.
“Sister! What is happening?!” Luna cried out in shock. Almost directly above the main city of Canterlot the sky seemed to rip open with a blinding light.
“This has ‘The Doctor’ written all over it! When I get my hooves on him…” Celestia grumbled.
Elsewhere in the time vortex, a certain brown stallion looked up from his console, “What?” he asked. Suddenly a huge explosion knocked the TARDIS from the vortex, causing it to crash violently on a random planet. The power had been drained and needed several days to recharge.
Meanwhile back on Equis, Celestia and Luna were watching in stunned amazement and horror as an enormous beast fell into the center of their city, crushing numerous building with its bulk. Following after it was what appeared to be a dragon with another odd creature ridding it. The monstrosity slowly picked itself up and reached towards the now closed crack in the universe, turning to stone as it did.
“Your majesty! A giant-” A guard called as he ran into her bedchambers.
“Assemble the guard! I want that thing surrounded immediately!” Celestia interrupted. The guard saluted and ran out the door.
“Is this wise, Tia?” Luna said, following her sister as she leapt off the balcony.
“It may not actually be the Doctor’s fault, and it may have been an accident that it landed on my city, but I will not give it a chance to act against us or our ponies.”
“Is this… the Land of the Gods?” the dragon asked as she glanced around at the serene landscape extending as far as the eye can see. She flared her wings in time to level off at the queen’s head. “What is this? This thing… what can we do?”
The queen began to sing, light and shadow, good and evil, they needed to silence the mother’s song.
“Oh no… Everypony fall back!” Celestia roared to her guards. They had assembled quickly and were about to form a perimeter around the beast. The guards immediately did as they were told, fleeing from the giant monstrosity with their princesses.
“Princess? What happened? Why are we running?” the captain of the guard, Shining Armor, asked.
“Can’t thou not hear it?” Luna asked.
“I don’t hear anything princess.” Shining said with a huff.
“Mortals shouldn’t be able to hear it Lulu. Shining, it is singing a song that will shroud the world in darkness and destroy every living thing on the planet. Being in close proximity is suicide. Lulu, I’m going on ahead to release Discord.” Celestia said suddenly.
“What!? Why?” Shining yelled.
“Because like it or not, Discord is a god of neutrality. If my sister and I were evil he would be benign, and most likely the prince of the land with us locked in stone. More than that, we will need his help if we are to neutralize that song before we all die.” Luna said as Celestia teleported to the castle courtyard.
Celestia appeared before the statue of Discord, self-proclaimed spirit of chaos and disharmony. She reached up with a hoof to touch his cheek, “Oh Dissy, I had hoped this day would never come.” She reached up and planted a light kiss on his lips. Landing back on all fours, she began the immensely difficult ritual to bring him back from his stone prison.
Caim and the dragon were almost knocked from the sky as the first note hit them. Thinking quickly, Caim came up with an idea so risky it just might work. Letting his mind interact with the dragon for a moment, he transferred his idea to her.
“Match the notes with those of our own? How will that work?” The dragon asked. Caim once more touched her mind, “Ah, since the queen wants to destroy, we shall sing of wanting to create.” Just as they were about to be struck by yet another note, the dragon let out a cry of her own.
To both her and Caim’s relief, the note from the Queen was neutralized. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning as a vast multitude of notes were sung, increasing in frequency as time passed. Not thinking about the possibility of failure, dragon and human linked minds and concentrated on matching the queen note for note.
Luna was preparing a teleportation spell to join her sister when she felt something new. It was the same notes as the beast, but these were filled with life in the defense of the living. Celestia shouldn’t be even close to being finished, so who was singing? She looked up at the dragon and its rider circling around the creature. Listening carefully, she heard the dragon crying out the notes of life, effectively neutralizing the notes of death.
In a flash of light, Luna teleported to her sister, who was glowing with a fiercely powerful magic. “Tia!” Luna shouted over the noise of the spell, “Tia wait! Another is singing the song!”
“Then it is all the more important that we free Discord and stop them at once.” Celestia said, her voice calm yet carrying a thundering ferocity.
“No, they are neutralizing it, and they may actually succeed!” Luna yelled.
Celestia let the magic fade, “Really? Who?”
“The strange dragon and its rider.”
“Lulu, if they fail…”
“Then I will help you with Discord, and together the three of us will send that beast back where it came from.” Luna said, and looked out toward the giant monstrosity alongside her sister, hoping for the best, yet prepared for the worst.
The notes kept coming, faster and more rapidly than imagined possible, but with their combined minds they pushed back against the darkness. Suddenly when they thought the worst was over, a cascade of notes was sang by the queen in such rapid succession that it sounded like a chorus. With a final bit of encouragement from Caim, the dragon sang with her very soul, matching the song note for note.
The notes never seemed to let up, seeming to last of all eternity as the dragon sang with all her might. Through her ten thousand years of life, never had she encountered such an adversary, let alone a battle consisting of the power of the voice. Suddenly the chorus was over, a few stray notes were sung in desperation, but the battle was finally over, Caim and the dragon had won.
They watched in awe as the queen crumpled to nothing but bits of dust. They did it, the world, not only their own but this new one as well, had been saved from the wrath of the Watchers. Down below in the streets, they heard the various cries of a crowd cheering their victory.
“It is done… at last…” suddenly the strength was drained from their bodies and they plummeted from the sky, the song of life drained them of nearly all of their life force, and they were on the verge of death.
Luckily, two alicorn goddesses saved them from their fall; their last sight before darkness took them was that of a large castle on the side of a mountain.
Drakengard: Far From Home
“Sister, are you sure it is wise to leave these creatures under such light surveillance?” Luna asked. They were in a pristine white emergency overflow medical bay in the deepest part of the castle. The bay was much larger than the rooms provided in the medical wing on the upper floors, mainly to provide space in the case of an emergency evacuation of the city, though it has never happened. For now it was housing a severely wounded dragon and a rather bald Diamond Dog.
They were overseeing the nurse change the bandages on the dragon. The beast somehow sustained massive injuries to its head, leaving not but the skull intact. The biped on the other hoof was clothed in various pieces of metallic armor, which had been carefully removed, revealing it was a male, and stored in a side closet. Though he showed no signs of injury they agreed that applying a medicinal gel to the body would be wise.
“Luna, if these two were indeed after the destruction of our fair city, why would they have risked themselves to destroy the monster that sang the song of such destruction?” Celestia replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to see about the recovery efforts in the city.”
Luna watched her sister walk away before returning her attention to the male biped, and then used her magic to tuck him back into his blankets as the nurse laid him back onto his cot after removing the bandages.
Shining Armor was overseeing the relief efforts of the Royal Guard in the center of the city. It was grim work; so many lives were lost in the initial attack, then in the collapse of the surrounding buildings. All too often several unicorns would lift away a section of rubble to reveal the mangled form of a shop keeper, or somepony unlucky enough to have been too close to a building as it collapsed. These bodies were becoming all too common, but the worst was what was being uncovered in that instant.
Some of the guards claimed they heard sounds from beneath a rather large section of stone and they required his assistance. Together they were able to shift the boulder enough to look at the underside. They found a young orange filly pegasus with a purple mane and tail, not quite old enough to have earned her cutie mark, curled up in a pool of blood between the smashed bodies of a mare and stallion while obviously in shock. Mother and father used their bodies to support the crushing weight of the stone in order to save their filly.
Another guard used his magic to remove the sobbing filly and the bodies of her parents. He set the bodies in the row next to the countless others and passed the filly to one of the medics on sight to be cleaned up and taken care of.
“Well I see that not everything is as dire as I suspected. Seeing one survivor gives us hope for others.” Princess Celestia announced as she arrived on the scene. The guards gave her a quick bow before returning to their tasks.
“I don’t know, Princess, she just had her entire life stolen from her. I almost wonder if death would have been a blessing than to live the rest of her life with what happened.” Shining said with a sigh, watching the filly from afar.
She was sobbing uncontrollably over the sudden loss of her parents and was fighting against the medics to get to their bodies. She managed to wiggle out of their grip and made it a few steps before getting hit with a sleep spell. Her body instantly collapsed and skidded to a halt where she was retrieved and taken into one of the medical tents.
“Shining Armor, while her life may seem bleak at the moment, never assume death to be the better option. She still has so much life ahead of her, friends she no doubt has to lean on and others willing to love and care for her. Yes, she will bear scars for years to come, but in the end one can only hope it will make her strong.” Celestia said. Shining nodded in agreement before resuming his duties with her by his side.
“Biological scans indicate that they pose no disease, illness, or any other threat to our health.” A light pink nurse stated as she read from a chart.
“Thank you, miss…?” Luna asked.
“Mrs. Autumn Heart.” She said.
“Thank you Nurse Heart. Do we have any information on the dragon?”
“Well, after further examination we found that the head IS the skull, and it is SUPPOSED to be like that. It is of no known dragon species on record, although we did manage to contact a dragon expert in the area. He’s supposed to arrive sometime tonight.” Nurse Heart said as she flipped through the reports.
“And the other one?” Luna asked, turning her gaze to the biped.
“At first glance it does look like a bald diamond dog, but after analyzing the bone structure in more detail there is no relation to the diamond dogs in any way. The diamond dogs have short legs and long arms ending in clawed paws to give them a better digging ability. This specimen has longer legs and slightly shorter arms lacking sharp claws.”
“Curious…” Luna trailed off in thought. “How long until they wake?”
“We currently have them suspended for the testing, so we can wake them at any time.” Nurse Heart said with a smile.
Luna smiled back, “Most excellent! Let us wake them at once!”
“Shouldn’t we inform Princess Celestia?” Nurse heart asked cautiously.
“She is currently overseeing the recovery efforts and would be unavailable for some time.” Luna said with a wave of her hoof. “Now let’s wake them up!”
“Well if you say so.” Nurse Heart said with a smile, Luna’s enthusiasm was contagious, causing her to become giddy with excitement as she prepared the spell to wake them.
With a soft pink flash of light, the dragon and the biped began to stir. Luna and Nurse Heart watched with bated breath as the creatures slowly began to wake up. The male biped was the first to regain consciousness. He looked around the room in confusion for a moment before his eyes landed on Luna and the nurse. His eyes went wide and he leaped off the bed in reflex and crouched down behind it in hiding.
He cautiously poked his head up to get a better look at his visitors, which he soon identified the nurse as a small horse, a bit too small to ride. The other was another horse; a bit smaller than average but it was a horse none the less. A horse with a horn. And wings. His eyes widened further as he took in these details.
He slowly stood, never taking his eyes off of the blue horse. He was surprised at the amount of expression displayed on its face. If he didn’t know better he would guess it was… embarrassed? Caim looked down at himself, seeing nary a scrap of cloth on him. With equal embarrassment he promptly grabbed the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around his torso.
Luna laughed, “I see you are lively today.” He seemed shocked that she was able to speak, even more so that they spoke the same language.
“Can you understand me?” Luna asked, which he replied with a nod of his head. “Well that saves us countless hours of language issues. Now, where are you from?”
Caim raised an eyebrow as he looked around for a way to answer the question. His eyes fell on the still recovering dragon. He looked back at Luna and pointed at the dragon.
“You… came from the dragon?” Luna asked in confusion. Caim face-palmed with a loud slap. “Wait, can you even speak?” Caim shook his head ‘No.’ He pointed to the dragon again.
“Well let’s start at the beginning. You remember coming to our world?” Caim nodded. “After your defeat of the monstrosity you and the dragon lost consciousness. My sister and I caught you before you could fall to your deaths and brought you here to recover. We have no record or either of your species and we were able to bring you back to consciousness in hopes of finding out more about you.” Luna said. “My name is Princess Luna, Ruler of the Night, and my sister is Princess Celestia, Ruler of the Day. Together we control the sun and the moon, bringing forth night and day to our land.”
Caim looked at her in doubt, he had seen gods and they were mockeries of the human race determined in their destruction of the world.
“What manner of creature wields such power as to control the very heavens themselves?” Luna and Nurse Heart nearly jumped out of their skin as a new voice echoed through the chamber. “You do not appear as a god, for we have met them and slain them all.”
Luna discovered that it was the dragon, somehow able to speak. “And for what reason would you seek the destruction of your gods?”
“Simply because they sought the destruction of our world. Do not tell me you failed to notice the monstrosity that attempted to lay waste to this world. That was their queen.” The dragon said. “For months we had fought against their armies of corruption and killed millions of foes with my searing flam and Caim’s vengeful sword.”
Luna turned to Caim, “So, your name is Caim?” He nodded, “And what may we call you? Surely being called ‘dragon’ is degrading to one such as yourself.”
The dragon raised her head to look directly at Luna, “No mortal has ever gained the honor of learning my true name in my fifty thousand years of life.”
“I’ll have you know that I am no mortal, My sister and I have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, through times of great strife, war and bloodshed, and I myself have recently returned from a thousand years of banishment to the very moon I control; my punishment for allowing myself to become corrupted by evil and enslaving my guards in an effort to overthrow my sister to bring about eternal night.” The dragon was stunned into silence, the first time since she was naïve and still in her birth nest. “Nurse Heart, you may take your leave and speak of nothing you have seen or heard here.”
Nurse Heart bowed quickly before trotting out the room, closing the door behind her. The dragon glanced at Caim, “Caim, we have fought and bled side by side for months as we battled through entire armies on our own. You showed me that not all humans are pitiful beings to be spited and eaten, and for that I shall bestow upon you an even greater honor than being a simple pact-beast: my true name. Do not take this knowledge lightly, for a dragon’s name is sacred.”
She bowed before Caim and Luna, “Angelus. My name is Angelus.”
“It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Angelus. My true name is Princess Lunamoon.” Luna said as she bowed back toward Angelus.
“I am honored to meet a benevolent god.” Angelus said as she stood from her bow. “Caim, we have bested gods and found ourselves in a new world. A world devoid of the war we have faced head on. I feel we no longer have need of our pact, but let us not be strangers, but allies in this new world should we need one another.”
Angelus grunted as she flashed with light, Caim felt his connection to Angelus disappear and had an odd taste on his tongue. He turned and looked into a mirror on the wall; he opened his mouth and saw the mark on his tongue fade away. With a sad smile he turned back to Luna.
“Hello Princess.”
