LoS: Dark Love: Ch 8

The Iron Warriors


Demetrius and Meltor left the black tower together and headed into the thick dark clouds above. In there Demetrius took the lead and led them through the clouds while lightning flashed all around them.

Meltor did not know how long they flew through the clouds, but suddenly they came into an area free of clouds and straight ahead Demetrius saw a flying island. Above and below, as well as all around the island there were dark clouds with lighting flashing inside them, but it never came close to the flying island.

The island itself was barren and consisted of the same dark earth and crystals as the crystal fields far below them.

"What is this place?" asked Meltor astonished as they landed on the flying island.

"This was my secret facility, not even my farther knew of this place or at least I don't think so" said Demetrius.

"Facility? There is something inside this island?" asked Meltor.

Demetrius nodded, but did not answer. Instead he walked over to a crude thirty meters high wall of stone and stood for a moment there before turning his head towards Meltor.

"Walk over to that rock formation there and push against it" said Demetrius and gesticulated to a crude rock pillar standing near the wall.

Meltor did not know what Demetrius planned but decided to do as he asked. Leaning back on his back legs Meltor placed his forelegs against the pillar and was surprised when it slid forward with a loud click followed by the sound of stone grinding against stone.

Meltor looked over at Demetrius and saw him evaporate into the dark cloud and then move towards the rock wall where a small hole had appeared. Demetrius disappeared through the hole.

Shortly after a small tremor shook the island and Meltor watched in awe as an enormous section of the rock wall opened outwards like a massive gate.

Meltor slowly walked inside, watching the shadows for Demetrius but relaxed when Demetrius casually walked up to him the moment he entered.

"I see now why you needed my help. You need to be at least two to get inside this facility and open the gates" said Meltor looking around in the great hall he stood in.

"Indeed one person needs to reveal the opening and another with my abilities or similar can then enter. It also served as a defense mechanism against my father in case he ever broke free and found the facility. As powerful as he was he never found a way to incorporate the dark elements in his own body" told Demetrius with a gleeful smile.

They started walking into the facility, Demetrius leading the way through dark corridors only sparsely lit by small crystal formations. In the vague light Meltor saw that they passed several cages set along the walls, some of them empty and other filled with skeletons of apes or dragons. Many places were also covered in a thick layer of dust.

It suddenly struck Meltor that it had to have been a long time since anyone was here and it lead him to look at Demetrius with suspicion. Meltor wondered that if Demetrius was really Malefor´s son, then what had he been doing all this time?

"There is something I would like to know" asked Meltor and stopped. "You claim to be Malefor´s son , yet I never knew he had a son, in fact I find it strange that you have first appeared now, twenty years after his downfall!"

Demetrius stopped and turned around and Meltor was slightly annoyed that Demetrius still had the same confident smile he had shown almost since Meltor had meet him.

"I guess that must seem odd to you, but the reason I have not moved around for awhile is because I could not move. I have been imprisoned for 27 years after I was defeated by my mate" told Demetrius.

"Your mate?! You had a mate!?" exclaimed Meltor shocked.

"Why should I not have? Because I embrace the darkness I cannot feel love? That is nothing but children stories and fairy tales, even if it is probably fitting when it comes to my father" told Demetrius. "You probably know my mate too. It was Cynder the terror of the skies and she will be mine again."

Meltor froze as anger and hatred welled up inside him. It only lasted a second before he calmed down, but it still set of a string of thoughts in him. He started walking while thinking of what he had just heard.

Demetrius turned around and started walking again like nothings had happened.

Meltor´s first idea was to assault Demetrius, but he stopped himself. Demetrius was opportunity for revenge he could not ruin it now. Demetrius did not seem to know that Cynder was one of the dragons he sought revenge against so if he just kept it hidden for now he could manipulate things to his advantage.

"That is quite a surprise, but I still don't understand how there can be no records of you, I mean something as important as Malefor´s only child I would consider quite important" asked Meltor trying to keep as straight a face as possible.

To Meltor´s great surprise Demetrius started laughing at this question. A light, but ice cold laughter which chilled even Meltor´s blood.

"Well I can already see how misinformed they are out there. I am not Malefor´s only child, only his only son" said Demetrius as his laughter died down.

"You mean…you have a sister?!" exclaimed Meltor in shock.

"Indeed, but I can't say much about her because I don't know where she is now. She disappeared, many, many years back and I have not heard from her since then" told Demetrius. "As for how I remained hidden, I guess it is because I never really went into active battle. I did reconnaissance, strategy, as well as research so I was never really seen by any other dragons, moles or cheetahs at least not anyone who lived long after seeing me" told Demetrius and then looked back at Meltor. "Also one more thing, whatever plan hatched in your brain when I mentioned my mate, you should forget about it and focus on how we can attack Warfang instead. I can't use you if I can't trust you too be of use to me."

Meltor made a low snarl and then just kept quiet and followed Demetrius as they entered a great room.

It was an enormous hall, so big a dragon could easily fly around in it without great danger of hitting the walls or the ceiling and indeed it seemed to be intended because all around the room, set into the walls were small caves big enough for a dragon to fit into.

But what caught Meltor´s attention the most was line after line of iron statues standing along the edge of the hall.

The statues appeared in four different shapes from what Meltor could see. One iron statue looked like a cheetah, except just much taller and with what looked like a large grey crystal in its chest which was held in place by its ribcage.

The second statue type also walked on two legs, but instead of hands it had large scythe like blades and all around its body were several small openings, inside of which Meltor could make out grey crystals.

The third type of statue looked very much like a dragon, except that its wings had no membranes and was nothing but iron bones. It also had a large set of sinister looking insect mandibles instead of a dragon's mouth. Its crystal was inlaid in the wings, running like a stand all the way up the iron
The last statue stood on all four, but was still almost as high Meltor himself. It had two great sharp horns protruding out in front of it. It also had hooves for instead of paws for feet and unlike the others, Meltor could not see any crystal on this one.

At least a hundred of each of these four types stood lining the walls.

"Magnificent aren't they?" asked Demetrius seeing Meltor staring at the statues. "This is our army, the army I worked on along with my mate to take this world for ourselves."

"You mean…these things can move?" asked Meltor.

"Not yet, I never found an appropriate way of making them able to move, before I was imprisoned" said Demetrius.

"But I assume you have now?" asked Meltor.

"At the very least an idea, but I won't lie to you it might take some time" said Demetrius and started walking down along the lines of statues.

Meltor followed still looking at the statues. He noticed how some of the statues otherwise grey crystals sometimes were of a different color. Red, yellow, blue glows could be seen in some of the statues crystals and soon he also saw a pattern in the colors. The dragon like statues were the ones with a yellow glow, the ones with the ribcage crystal had a red glow and the ones with the blade arms had a blue glow.

Suddenly he also saw something that made him stop. "One of them just moved!" he snarled at Demetrius as he watched the statue where he had seen a hand move. It was one of the two legged ones with the ribcage crystal.

Suddenly the one Meltor had pointed out burst forward, knocking the statues in front of it aside and charged straight at Meltor. As it ran towards him it raised one of its hands and Meltor could see that there was a hole in the palm of the hand.

He only just registered this before a fireball erupted from the hole and flew towards Meltor. Meltor was taken by surprise, but still managed to raise one of his wings in defense.

He felt as the fireball seared a good part of his wing, but he also knew that his own element had minimized the damage. He lowered his wing and saw the statue still coming running at him.

Waiting for it to be close enough, Meltor turned around and delivered a powerful whip like attack with his tail intent on knocking the metal statue over.

The statue saw it coming and raised one of its arms against the tail.

Meltor´s tail hit the arm with enormous force, forcing the statue to dig its feet in the ground as it was moved slightly across the floor. But it remained standing and Meltor quickly retracted his tail and prepared for a new attack.

"Stop Infernio, he is an ally" yelled Demetrius suddenly and the statue which had been about to attack Demetrius again stopped.

Before Meltor had time to say anything the statue spoke in a clear voice which sounded almost like a metallic ringing. Where the voice came from was impossible to discern though as no part of the statues body moved. "Master Demetrius welcome back" said the statue and then turned too Meltor and with a bow said "I am sorry for that little incident, but my orders were to kill anyone not Master Demetrius or Mistress Cynder who entered this facility. I must compliment you on your strength though, I almost lost balance at your blow and I think you left a mark in my body."

Meltor simply stared at the statue. "Who is that!?" exclaimed he looking over at Demetrius.
"Infernio, willing servant and trusted friend as well as the only dragon who survived the transfer process" answered Demetrius.

"Transfer process!?" exclaimed Meltor confused.

"He means I am the only one where he successfully transferred my soul as well as my elemental powers" answered Infernio.

Meltor looked just as dumbfounded as before. Science, alchemy, he knew practically nothing on it so something like transferring elemental powers and souls was far beyond him. But he choose not to question it as he would probably not understand the answer. But he did understand the glow he had see in the crystals now. It had to be the elemental power of other dragons entrapped in the statues and the reason not all the statues had the glow was because not all had been given the powers due to lack of dragons to take them from. But these iron warriors were powerful, that much was already certain.

"You said you never finished these iron warriors, that you never successfully brought them to life, but that you had an idea now. What is that idea?" asked Meltor.

"I broke into the Warfang library and read up on everything that had happened since my imprisonment. There I learned that my father had successfully resurrected the Destroyer as well as creating a Golem and they had been powered by dark crystals" said Demetrius.

"And you plan to bring these to life using the dark crystals" said Meltor guessing his line of thought.
"Exactly, but it might take some time to get the crystals to work properly as I first have to replicate my father's work and  then adapt it for our use" said Demetrius.

"Might this help?" asked Meltor with a gleeful smirk as he took a book out of his pouch. Back when the Council had taken over Warfang he had secured a few books he knew might come in handy some day. Among them had been Malefor´s research journal that had been recovered in Satenryu and even if he did not understand much in it he had kept it because he knew it was better than letting his enemies have it.

Demetrius looked at the book and his eyes widened. Without a word he snatched the book and looked over at Infernio. "Gather whatever dark crystals you can find and bring a iron warrior to my lab immediately, Meltor follow me and assist me" said Demetrius with a great deal of enthusiasm. "If this works properly we should have at least the elementally powered warriors ready in less than a week and it is all thanks to you."

"I am in this for my revenge, your thanks means nothing" said Meltor.

"Right and you will get that in due time. But for now we have work to do" said Demetrius having regained his devious smile.