With a voice commanding authority, the Knight said.
"Where do you vermin think you're going!"
Just then, the whole swarm of dragons stopped. Incapable of disobeying the voice, they each flew down landing in the crater. They had not been commanded to speak so none dared, even if it was one.
Just by exerting its presence, the whole procession of dragons bowed their heads. The Knight had showed the dragon(s) soul mercy, but the act of taking possession of a soul and reviving the dead beast, gave the Knight resolute power over every single fire dragon. So, instead of being surrounded by a pool of lave alone, the Knight had a whole ring of red-hot dragons bowing in grace.
You have revived the level 321 True Beast, Red Scorch. Now they bow at your feet in reverence to the glory of their master.
Red Scorch had not yet felt the price it had paid for this 'mercy', if it can even be called that. This happened because the Knight took its soul, taking unrestricted ownership over the soul. This is what happens at the death of the void dwellers. They remove a soul from the cycle of death and rebirth, eradicating the souls into oblivion. The knight and others trade this ownership of souls using soul cores, but the Knight had an inventory as such it had no need for it.
The Knight consumes, eradicates souls, or moulds them into physical objects, either of these completely obliterates a soul. When someone dies, their soul usually dissociates from their bodies and moves on to the realms. Even those who become spirits in death cannot attach back to their bodies as they have been disassociated. This is the power Romeo had, the power over the connection between things in a larger and more general way.
The dragon that had died had formed fully functional bodies from its scales right before it died, these were an attempt to escape, but when a void dweller grabs a hold onto a soul, it grabs all of it. But enough of a grip needs to be established for the soul to fully disassociate.
This is why the dragon did not die when the followers destroyed some of its vessels, this is because any singular vessel cannot hold of the soul, it was too stretched thin. In the form the dragon was in, it could exercise way more power, but this leaves it vulnerable to a largescale attack like the one perpetrated by the Knight.
This is what made its form a double-edged sword and why dragons avoided being in this form, and why they had not been killed in all these millennia. The Knight had the army, so it would win in a drawn-out battle against a legion, Red Scorch realised this, after noticing just how disposable the individual vessel were. The Knight had managed to bait it into an all-out battle. The Knight could handle a fight with the legion, but it would take time, and the Knight hated wasting time, and did not have time to waste.
Even though the Knight had been the instigator, since it was hard to aggravate a dragon that knows it is out matched into an all-out battle, it had been way more than the Knight had bargained for. It had not counted on the scales being so sturdy, the Knight lost its chain, its scythe, its hammer, and had ended up in this sorry state.
The battle had taken more of a toll than had been initially calculated. After the assessment from the humans, 'dragons are amongst the weakest true beasts,' the Knight had not counted on the battle being this deadly. If the humans are to be believed, then what type of creature sits at the pinnacle of all true beasts?
Then after getting a big enough grip on the soul after the battle, the Knight tugged at it, taking the whole soul. This completely disassociated the whole dragon from its soul. After that drawn out battle, the Knight could still think straight, seeing the intact vessel gave it an idea. Taking a page from the void being that made it, the Knight tried to force the soul back inside.
It had suspected it could do this but had never tried. An example was Mugaw and the followers, they could exist in soul form and physical form while controlling a vessel. The vessel was compatible, undamaged, but it did not have a living soul in it now, it might as well be a boulder. So, when the Knight tried to attach the soul, it worked but not like how it gave its followers vessels. This was a mock soul, not quite alive, but not quite dead.
This mock soul then spread itself, to avoid the self-burning property of its power. This connected it to the pieces of the corpses, making them vessels once more, reforming the legion. Now that the soul was the property of the Knight, it could feel it spread even further, meaning that there are even more vessels, explaining the weight of the soul, but it did not know yet. This did not feel like giving a soul a vessel, but more like how the Knight felt creating objects from souls.
'Crimson smith skill? No… Soul craft! It has to be.'
The whole thing felt like when the Knight created a whole new type of soul from multiple souls, but this felt slightly different. For one, the Knight only had one soul to expend, or maybe this soul is just so vast the Knight only needed one?
The Knight could not quite figure it out, but it was safe to say it had just made a new soul. Thus, it was similar to the beings of the void, and itself, made to resemble a soul, but not really one. This is how the Knight made its first mock soul(s) leading it further down to the path of a void being.
Now, the Knight looked down at the flower that had formed around it, made from the prostrated dragons, the Knight stopped exerting its presence, and they all slowly rose their heads looking at the Knight's sabatons. Each hulking at a hundred metres or so, the Knight at a kilometre. In this lava filled crater, it felt fitting to be surrounded by all these red hills.
The Knight had to resolve things quickly; Zuri and its squadron were not here anymore, and keeping the void augmentation active was straining. So, it gave the followers some monster souls and gave the dragon(s) an order. After releasing the void augmentation, the Knight shrank down and toppled but was caught in the jaws of one of the dragon.
It flew all the way back to the city of Arulli. The people had been shaken after the events that had happened that night, since to them, they were woken up by strange pillars of fire, but only a few had burned in this city. On the way to the mountains, the Knight had missed knight Banneret Holi's legion leave for the mission to Pyre. Those of higher rank had left first on dragon back, then the army followed shortly after.
So, seeing a few other dragons coming from the opposite direction, on this ostentatious day, was a little alarming. The whole area around the mountains has been experiencing strange weather because of the fight between the Vile Knight and the dragon Red Scorch.
The dragons landed, the stone of the city walls had a cool touch. It had been hit by a shockwave, heatwave, and sudden rain. The soldiers posted at the walls would have attacked, not letting the dragon rampage in the city, but as it approached it announced its intentions.
"I mean no harm."
The city had also heard this far-reaching voice.
Once the soldiers reached the dragon it said, "I have a message for the knight paladin Banneret Solace."
With weary faces they fetched Adriel, the paladin was currently preoccupied. "My master said to guard him for a few months, he will be stuck in this state of rest for a while. He said to tell you guys no need to feed him and not to take his armour off. Then he said no need to leave him at headquarters either, I will carry him on my back to the woods of Elleria."
She said, as she scratched her head, "This guy really is a handful. I sometimes wonder if he even is alive, don't feed him? How did he even manage to tame a dragon, Red Scorch at that, one infamous for his foul temper.
I guess he took a beating for it though, no wonder he needs to sleep for a while. I wonder if this is how Maroon city felt when he came back after defeating a divine angel. At this pace they might just demote him to knight Errant..."
She then looked at the soldiers. "At ease, he's with me."
Then back at the dragon. "Come with me to the Academy, I can't leave him at the walls." – 'He's going to have a lot of explaining to do once he gets up.'
The dragon nodded, and started following Adriel, one of the soldiers asked, "Is this the knight hero?"
She looked back at the armour laying lifelessly on the dragon's back, "You tell me."
Rumours spread like wildfire – a great one. It was not easy to deny them, but after watching fire dragons fly through the city with the subject of these rumours, it made it hard to not believe them. They are stories about a Valiant knight, who braves the realms for opponents of which the likes the world could not handle. He is the great fire, which will illuminate this world festering with darkness. The hero who will one day bring the world prosperity.
The one who tamed a true beast stronger than itself, defeated an angel, and hears the hopes of all.
This was also because of the hero skill, just as much as the Knight could feel its connection to the believers, they could feel their connection to the Knight, as such these thoughts about the Knight tend to get amplified out of proportion. Fanning the flames to the legend of the Knight. The Knight would feel the new connections from the city of Arulli once it awoke, but for now, all it did was manage to help the Knight heal faster, even if slightly.
***
The week was over, so the paladin legion matched, leaving for the woods of Elleria. This specific army had two irregularities, the white armour of the paladin's main squadron, made of the Batchelors and commanders. The other irregularity were the few dragons flying beside them, keeping low to the ground.
The Knight had been saddled in, strapped up, with the scars from the battle still catching the eyes of the onlookers. If the Knight's armour was not so dark one would have noticed just how much charring it had taken, and just how much ash it had piled up. The dragons always kept watch over the Knight, scaring people off, just as Mugaw had done in Maroon city.
The army vanished into the distance as every other army had. This journey was longer than the one they had taken from Maroon city to the city of Arulli. It had spanned a few months, and had monster encounters along the way, but the army made short work of them. The massive woods of Elleria were within view, massive trees kilometres across.
The journey had taken so long the Knight's body had mostly recovered, watching armour heal itself was a treat, it reminded the army that the Knight was not dead. Even the soot had removed itself, but even after all these months, the Knight was still nowhere near up. Following from a wide enough range, were the rest of the dragons and the vile army, making sure not to be noticed by the legion.
The dragons were not sharing their skills with the vile army and vice versa. This had showed the Knight that only its original set of followers possessed this capability, any and all other followers could not oblige.
Once they reached the foot of the woods, the Elleria guard stopped the army, saying the dragons may not enter for obvious reasons. Solace took the Knight from the dragon as they were welcomed into the forest. The protruding roots were thicker than small hills, and this makes one wonder just how big the fire would be, if all of it were set ablaze?
They were welcoming the being rumoured to be the 'great fire,' after all, even if they did not know it. By the looks of these trees, it must take a lot to even bring them to a small smoulder.